


one thousand and two nights

by colonellaurens



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M, and i impulsively wrote this, in which lance is a merman, listen i know it's 2018 but i just got into voltron last month bc i heard all the tea with s7, more tags to come, this isn't an adashi fic (i wish it was) but theyre definitely together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-07-12 00:47:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15984017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colonellaurens/pseuds/colonellaurens
Summary: Lance was curious — always curious, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself. To him, he was in a turf war with the land-dweller. He wouldn’t back down. Yet, each time he visited, he learned more and more about this boy on land, despite his best efforts to ignore him.Approaching him was dangerous, really. Lance knew that. But that didn't stop him.Or, in which Lance is a merman and Keith is the one who discovers him. Or perhaps it's the other way around.





	1. unusual

**Author's Note:**

> what's up guys i really don't have time for a multichapter fic but i guess im back on my bullshit

It is early morning when Lance sees him for the first time.

 

There was a stretch of land along the coast that was uninhabited. There was a building — a home, likely — that land-dwellers often lived in to shelter themselves from the elements. This one had been empty for a long time, so land-dwellers often stayed away from this area. Maybe it was objectively creepy. Naturally, it became Lance’s favorite place to get a moment alone. On that particular day, Lance awoke early, frustrated from a fight he had the previous night with his sister Veronica. Those who knew the merman knew — he cherished his family above all else. He hated petty arguments like this (she accused him of stealing her favorite comb when he doesn’t even have hair long enough to comb!). His first instinct was to swim to his favorite, uninhabited stretch of land to cool off. He huffed as he broke the surface of the water, drawing his gaze towards the shore. Veronica was _stubborn,_ and Lance knew that they wouldn’t get anywhere if _he_ wasn’t the one to apologize.

It wasn’t even his fault! Why should _he_ have to apologize for the fact that _she_ misplaced her _own_ comb? She went to sleep without even saying goodnight to him! He let out a groan of frustration and dove down into the water, watching various schools of fish and coral reefs as he whizzed on by, towards the shore. It was stupid, _stupid,_  a petty little thing, he knew as he resurfaced, looking once more towards the shore.

But he stops in his tracks, breath caught in his throat.

For a second, he thinks he imagines it. It looked like another merman, just on the shore. But there was no fin or — or _anything_ to speak of. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes for good measure. That form, _walking_ along the sand — it’s unmistakable. This creature that he’d only heard stories of from his family; endless stories of his people being killed — or worse, captured! — by those who use their strange limbs to walk across the land, who build large wooden contraptions that make up for their poor swimming ability, desperately seeking Lance’s people to use as mere _things_ for their own benefit. He’d heard stories of the most beautiful of the bunch who’d gotten too close to these creatures and were plucked from the sea, their scales stripped away from them for profit. He quickly ducked down under the water.

It was a land-dweller.

By all means, Lance should be disgusted. Fearful. He should have turned immediately and swam as fast as his body would take him, far, far away from the creature his people ceaselessly hid from.

And yet, he didn’t.

Curiosity gripped his entire being like a vice, his petty argument with his sister long forgotten as he watched with wonder as the boy on land used his — bottom arms? Whatever they were called — to slowly walk across the sand, like a crab, staring at the sand beneath him. His hands were shoved into his clothing — that much Lance could recognize, though his clothing looked rather strange — and he seemed to periodically disturb the sand as he walked. As Lance swam closer, fear be damned, he could see that the boy on land seemed...sad. Distraught, perhaps. His shoulders were slumped and it was almost as though he were walking aimlessly, caring not where he ended up.

Well...whatever. Lance was not about to leave. This was _his_ spot. Land-dweller be damned —  _he was here first!_ He would just...wait until the boy left. Yeah.

Even so, Lance swam as close as he dared, coming up to a rock formation by the shore that the ocean, ever omnipotent, gently lapped at, as though she sensed Lance’s curiosity and was allowing him this moment. This singular moment, as the boy on land disturbed the sand once more, almost angrily. Lance was close enough to hear him sigh. He peered down the boy’s slender form and looked once again at those _things_ he walked on. Scrawny. Not at all suited for the water. He peered down, down, and down, taking every detail in until he reached —

 _That! What the fuck is_   _that!_ He couldn’t suppress the gasp of utter shock and morbid interest as Lance saw that where his body met the sand, there were these little _nubs_ of strangely formed flesh that vaguely resembled a misshapen hand! It was —  _interesting,_ yes, but he couldn’t find what _purpose_ those things had! They were...hideous!

All at once, his eyes snapped back up to the boy’s face and found, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, that he was discovered.

He didn’t look back as he fled.

 

Lance knew he should stay far, _far_ away from that stretch of land. By all means, he should have stayed underwater, as he was _meant_ to. But he was stubborn as _hell!_ He was _not_ about to give up his special spot, away from everyone else, so easily. He kept coming back. Each time, the boy was there too. He pretended to be annoyed.

 

Eventually, this became habit. Every morning, Lance would sneak off to ~~meet the strange boy~~ _his_ special stretch of land, and always found the boy in the same place, walking. Standing still. Sometimes, he sat in the sand, staring out to sea. Contemplating. Other times, he paced back and forth, restless. Worried about some strange land-dwelling thing that Lance could only speculate about. Always, he was confined to the sea, hiding himself and his strong, lean fin mostly out of sight.

He was curious — always curious, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself. To him, he was in a turf war with the land-dweller. Lance wouldn’t back down. Yet, each time he visited, he learned more and more about this boy on land, despite his best efforts to ignore him. The boy wore red more times than not. He was wont to rub his thumb against his index finger when he was deep in thought, or otherwise trying to calm down. It seemed like an unconscious movement. Like he didn’t even realize he was doing it. And he always seemed...sad. Lance never saw the boy happy. Part of him wanted to help. But that was ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as the land-dweller's hair. His hair was black as night, and was styled in a silly way. It covered most of his forehead and reached the nape of his neck. No, Lance was right. It was ridiculous. More ridiculous than his desire to take the boy's sadness away. A silly mullet. Who _willingly_ styled their hair like that anyways?! When he first noticed it, he couldn’t help but laugh to himself. Despite that, he wondered how it would feel to _touch_ it. It would be dry, of course, and —

Lance dashed that thought from his mind. They were — they were _rivals_ now, damn it! This, this was war! He was downright _annoyed_ that this land-dweller would have the _audacity_ to even _think_ about invading his favorite spot. That day, Lance swam away, more annoyed than when he got there. 

Sometimes the boy would murmur to himself and angrily kick some sand up in frustration. Today, by the time Lance reached that ever-familiar rock formation, the boy brought what appeared to be a padded contraption used to train for combat purposes. Lance watched in amazement as the boy threw punch after punch, knocking the contraption back with each hit he landed. He seemed to hop from limb to limb, like a fish washed up on land, and kept his fists close to his face. It was...interesting to watch. Lance had never seen anything like it. He watched as the boy delivered each blow with intention, until he jumped back slightly and, with a sort of yell, kicked above his head with a force so hard that it knocked the contraption over and spun him all the way around. All in one fell sweep. Lance’s jaw dropped, watching as water spilled from the base of the thing. And the boy — his bangs stuck to his forehead, and he was breathing hard. He lifted his right hand and wiped his cheek with the back of it.

“I know you’re there, you know,” the boy said, sweat dripping from his temple. He stared straight ahead. “What do you want,” he said more than asked, a twinge of annoyance in his voice. He looked over to where Lance was hiding, always hiding.

Lance let the words wash over him, like the trickle of rain in the early morning. He was discovered, yet he couldn’t bring himself to duck behind the rock, or even respond. The boy’s voice came out in smooth waves, and for a moment, Lance was stunned.

“Did you hear me?” the boy spoke again. He demanded, “Why are you _always_ here? You stalking me or something?”

Oh. Oh _no,_ Lance would _not_ just take that! Not from the _squatter_ invading his personal refuge. He hoisted himself up the rock, just far enough so that his fin would be out of sight. He was gonna give this _land-dweller_ a piece of his mind.

“Oh, wouldn’t _you_ like to know, _mullet boy!_ ” Lance began, tail flicking with annoyance. A corner of his lips curled upwards.  _Mullet boy._ He thought that was funny. “I’ll have you know that you’ve been invading _my personal space_ this whole time!”

“Mullet boy?” the boy murmured to himself, running a hand through his sweaty locks. He frowned. “ _Your_ personal space? Do you live here? On that...rock? Why haven’t you ever said anything?”

Lance sputtered and nearly slipped off the rock entirely. “Wha—that’s none of your business! I was here first!”

“ _So?_ ”

Lance blinked a few times, taken completely aback by that. “This is—we’re in a turf war!”

“A turf war?” the boy echoed. “Since when? I don’t even know who you are. We’ve never met.”

“My name’s Lance,” he said, puffing his chest out proudly. “So now you know who I am, _mullet,”_ he sneered.

The boy merely raised his eyebrow. “Okay. _Lance._ My name isn’t mullet.” He crossed his arms, seeming to have caught his breath at this point. A cool breeze blew past.

Lance leaned his head forward, eyebrows raised. Expectant. When the boy said nothing, he said, “Then what is it?”

A pause. “Keith.”

Keith. _Keith._ His name was Keith. Where there is a name, there is power. And Lance just unwittingly gave his away.

Fuck.

“Well, _Keith,_ I found this spot first. So it’s mine.”

But Keith just shrugged. “I don’t see you in any rush to kick me out of here. You’re always hiding over there.”

Lance's nostrils flared. “And _what about it,_ Mister I-Love-Being-Angry-And-Broody-All-The-Time?”

Lance knew he shouldn’t be talking to Keith, the land-dweller. It was dangerous. He knew he was putting himself in danger. If his family ever found out, they’d kill him. But _it’s fine._ As long as he kept a few secrets, everything would be fine. It's fine.

“Why are you always...watching? If this is _your spot,_ why haven’t you said anything, like a normal human being?”

 _Human,_ as if Lance were human! The _audacity!_

“None of your _business,_ mullet boy!”

“Like I said, my name is Keith—!”

“Sorry! Can’t hear you!”

 

And then Lance was gone, nothing but a splash in his wake. 


	2. old haunts, new cities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for all the supportive comments you guys are really too sweet omg....

Human — _human,_ of course! Only a _human_ would be so unreasonable! Lance’s heart raced as he swam back to his little city in the sea. Most people would say “under the sea,” but that doesn’t make any sense. How can you be _under_ the sea if you were really _within_ the sea? Is there some place beneath the ocean floor that Lance didn’t know about?

Wait, that was beside the point! He was _mad_ at Keith! There was _absolutely no way_ he would talk to that _human_ tomorrow. It was disgraceful. He wouldn’t stoop down to Keith’s level.

 

The next morning, Lance stubbornly returned to his uninhabited little area and hoisted himself up on a rock, high enough that he could just see the sandy area nearby, but low enough that the bottom of his tail still felt the lapping waves. Carefully hidden. He crossed his arms and let out a huff. If that Keith shows his face, _I swear to god—_

“You’re here again, huh?”

Lance whipped his head around. _Keith._ Fuck, he was persistent.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t mullet boy,” Lance said.

At that, Keith closed his eyes and put a hand up to his face. “You literally know my name.”

“Maybe I do,” he said with a smirk. He rested his elbow on the rock and put his chin in his hand.

“Whatever, you—ocean boy.”

“Real clever with that one, huh?”

“Oh huff my shorts, Lance,” Keith said with a sharp exhale, arms crossed.

Lance blinked. “Huh?”

“I _said,_ huff my shorts.”

Keith glanced up to see Lance’s genuinely confused expression.

“It’s...slang? Hello?” he tried.

Lance still looked confused.

“It means—you know what, never mind.” Keith eyed Lance with a wave of his hand, brows furrowed with thinly veiled curiosity.

“No, no, tell me!” Lance said, leaning forward over the rock.

“Why don’t you come over here and get it out of me?”

Lance clicked his tongue against his teeth. “No can do, buddy.”

“Why? Are you _cursed_ to that rock forever?”

“Yes,” Lance deadpanned, “a siren kissed me once and now I’m bound forever to this one particular rock.”

“Tragic.” Keith shoved his hands in his pockets and began walking away.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“Home.”

Lance blinked. He frowned. “ _Wha—_ but you just got here!”

“ _And what about it?_ ” Keith said, pausing for just a moment to say that over his shoulder. Echoing Lance.

Keith saw the strange sea boy’s lips curl up into a sort of smile. “ _Aww,_ did you come all this way just to see me? I’m flattered. Really, what more can a boy ask for in life?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, ocean boy. I came for some peace and quiet, but I can see that _rock_ you’re cursed to also made it impossible for you to _shut up_.” His words may have held some bite, but they did nothing to hide the pink dusting of his cheeks.

Lance sputtered a bit, struggling to find words. “That’s just—rude! Unbelievable! This is _my_ spot, first of all!” he shouted after Keith. “Why don’t _you_ huff my— _my_ duff, mullet! _Hey!_ I'm talking to you! I'm not finished yet!”

But Keith wasn’t listening. He didn’t care to, anyways.

 

By the time Keith made it back to that uninhabited beach house, the sun was well in the sky. It was strange, really. Mulling over the events of the past few weeks...everything was just _weird._

It all started with that — that _stupid_ beach house Shiro discovered. It was dirty, run-down, and desperately uninhabited. The paint was peeling from both the inside _and_ the outside, and — and the ceiling _leaked_ anytime there was a bit of rain, and everything was constantly _cold,_ and Keith was always afraid that a sudden storm would roll in and the whole house would be wiped away. _You’d know if something was going to happen,_ Shiro said. _The ocean gives you subtle clues. You just have to learn to look for them._

Of course. Shiro _would have_ said that.

Shiro showed Keith this beach house about a month ago. It felt weird. _Too_ weird. It was like that house was abandoned for a _reason._ It had a bad air about it, but it seemed like Shiro was oblivious to all of it.

“Listen, Keith. I think this would be a great place to stay every so often when you need to get away from something. Not as a long term solution, of course. Just somewhere to be when you don’t want to be anywhere.”

That’s what Shiro had said.

“Don’t you think there’s something up with this place?” Keith had asked, eyeing the stairs suspiciously. The floorboards creaked with every step they took. “How long did you say it was abandoned?”

“A few years. But, look, we can spruce the place up a bit, invest in a rug or two, fix the leaks in the ceiling…” Shiro trailed off for a moment. He gave Keith a smile. “It’ll be like a second home. A home away from home.”

"A few  _years?! Jesus,_ Shiro, that's suspect!"

But Shiro just waved him off. "It's fine. Don't worry about it. This place doesn't look so pretty now, but it will." He gave Keith a look of assurance. "It's just for a bit of escape. Right next to the shore."

_Just somewhere to be when you don’t want to be anywhere._

Right.

Keith walked up the few stairs leading to the front door. He stepped inside, closed the door, and leaned against it. His head thudded against the wood. Shiro had changed the subject so quickly. Usually, he would _at least_ hear Keith out.

Two weeks later, Shiro went missing.

Suddenly, Keith didn’t want to be anywhere anymore. He didn’t want to _be_ anyone. He did the only thing he _could_ do.

He ran away. Away to the somewhere that wasn’t anywhere.

 

Then Lance came along.

The morning after Keith ran away. He was there. There, behind that little rock formation.

Keith hadn’t slept at all. How could he? The person closest to him — his _brother,_ in a sense — was gone. Gone, without a trace. Just like that. He could hear Shiro’s voice in his head, _You know, you still need to sleep, even when I’m not there._ Yeah, well. This time was different.

He kicked the sand under his feet. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his red jacket. Keith was alone — all alone. Always alone. He was fine. He could _deal_ with it. So Shiro’s gone. Fine, it’s _fine._ He could take care of himself. He angrily wiped a tear away with his shoulder. It was pointless to cry — crying wouldn’t bring Shiro back. It didn’t bring his dad back. He would _fucking_ deal with it.

Or whatever. Maybe it didn’t matter. Keith stared at the sand, walking slowly. He kicked it around. Maybe he was just as insignificant as every single grain of sand on the shore. If one was gone, no one would notice. But Shiro...his influence was much greater. He was like a rock formation on the beach. It made the land distinct; it acted like a landmark to know where you always were. Seeing the rock was comforting. Much like the rock formation up ahead—

Keith stopped in his tracks. His eyes snapped over to the rock formation. He knew he heard a gasp — he _had_ to. And then he saw — his eyes met blue. Short brown hair, tan skin. Blue eyes. Then the eyes met his. The next moment, they were gone. When Keith ran over to the place he had seen the other boy, there was nothing there.

 

There was no mistaking it. This stretch of land was _fucking cursed._


	3. possible deaths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the chapter titles are all songs from the band typhoon. i made a playlist to those songs [here](https://open.spotify.com/user/hb0dedf3uadivc3gxzvpelmb4/playlist/3uxl2stf91jtNgjTsnuNgh?si=hOEHaLRAQbmWHzZoiMtccg). i'll update the playlist with new chapters  
> (quick sidenote: the songs sort of portray the mood of the chapter. sort of)

Moments after Keith was completely out of sight, Lance sighed and looked up at the sky. It was overcast; the clouds were a light grey against a dim morning blue. He ran a hand through his damp hair. _Jeez, what’s his problem?_ The merman frowned to himself. He was — angry! Yes! That’s it. He was _angry_ at Keith. ~~(But don’t ask him why)~~

Honestly. He didn’t have to _storm off_ like that. But — wait! No! This was a good thing, Lance reminded himself. He chuckled mirthlessly, letting his hand fall from his hair. He’d _finally_ get his _spot_ back! That’s— that’s all he wanted from the beginning. Right. Yeah. Keith was a...nuisance — a _squatter_ that refused to accept that Lance found this place first! It’s a _good_ thing that that _human_ is gone. That — human...

...Oh, who was he kidding. He couldn’t even fool _himself_ into believing he was better off without that human sticking his nose around here. Even if it _was_ for the better! Lance…Lance had so many questions to ask. How is your hair ever soft if it’s always dry? What do you call those things you walk on? How do humans _reproduce?_ And for god’s sake, what are those _things_ , those little _nubs_ at the bottom of your walking things?!

He wanted to know _so much._ But no one ever told him _anything_ about what goes on beyond the water’s surface. The ocean was far larger than any landmass Lance had ever seen, but the ocean was all he knew. There was a whole other _world_ out there that he could _never see_ because of this — tail. His pride and joy. His scales, he’d like to admit, have a sort of beauty to them. From the tip, it is bluer than the cleanest parts of the ocean, and it shines in the sun magnificently. Beyond that, the tail begins to fade into a lighter blue, muscles lean and strong, until the scales seamlessly transition to flesh — scales which, for an unknown reason, shift in color depending on which way the light hits it.

Yeah. He loved his tail. It was the best part of him.

But sometimes...he wished he could travel on land as freely as humans can. Giving up his tail would be — _horrible,_ Lance couldn’t imagine a life where he didn’t live in the sea! Giving up this part of him would be like giving up the most essential part of your existence; Lance couldn’t live without this very thing that defines his species.

 _It’s just not fair,_ he thought to himself, flicking water up with the tip of his tail in slight frustration. Humans could have both, land and sea — why couldn’t he?

Lance stared out into the sea, watching as the rising sun’s reflection began glittering on the surface of the water. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to choose between land and sea. He probably wouldn’t have that _luxury_ , anyhow.

He gave up on that thought and swam back home. It was a silly thought.

 

Throughout the day, there was this insatiable curiosity Lance had. He thought about Keith — _mullet boy._ Did he live nearby? And if so... _where?_ There wasn’t a pocket of human dwellings as far as Lance could see, which meant there was no way Keith was from further inland, what with how often he came to, to _bother_ Lance. Unless —

That old home by the shore! The uninhabited one! The one that the tide lapped at when she is at her highest point. During high tide, it seemed like the ocean might all at once envelop the entire structure. The one that still stood after all this time, by some miracle, though it looked a little worse for wear. But that would mean — Keith _lived_ there?! In _that_ house? He should — he should _tell_ someone that a human was living so close to the city — !

But, but it was _Keith._ Lance didn’t know much about him yet, but...he felt like he already knew Keith. It was...strange, yeah, considering he’d only talked to him twice, but...he didn’t know how to explain it. It was like they were linked, somehow.

 _That’s ridiculous!_ He thought. Linked with a _human?_ Absurd. Lance didn’t even know if that was possible.

No. No it wasn’t.

He snuck away that night, anyhow.

 

***

 

Keith let out a heavy sigh. He flopped onto his back, staring at the ceiling. The moonlight streamed in through the tattered curtains of the old beach house, illuminating the room with a gentle silver glow. He sat up in his “bed” — which was mostly just a makeshift futon created from a few layers of cloth and blankets that he found around the old house, smelling of the sea and an old musty dust. It probably wasn’t healthy, but that didn’t matter. Shiro didn’t get the chance to fix the place up, since — you know.

He kicked the blankets off of him and stood up. He couldn’t sleep. Maybe he needed to clear his head. Keith rubbed his eyes, heading towards the two once-beautiful glass doors that never shut all the way. He pushed his way outside, onto the balcony. During the day, the ocean crashed against the rocky sand below, far below the house. Yet at night, the ocean rose, high enough that Keith could sit on the edge of the balcony and put his feet in the water.

Which he did. He rolled up his pants and tentatively dunked his feet into the cool ocean below. All was calm. He leaned back onto his hands and closed his eyes, facing the night sky. There was something therapeutic about being out here alone, no one to bother him, just him and his thoughts.

Until there was a splash somewhere to his right. His eyes snapped open and he looked there, only to find —

_Lance._

He huffed out a sigh. God — it’s like Keith couldn’t escape Lance, no matter how hard he tried. Keith sent him an exasperated glance. He was annoying to no end; couldn’t the poor guy get a break? He’d almost prefer being alone, back at school, with no Shiro, to being stuck with _Lance._ “You followed me home.”

“Why are you out here, so late at night?” Lance asked, ignoring the question, his tone soft — _softer_ than usual. It threw Keith off for a second. He blinked.

A snarky remark died in his throat. He didn’t reply immediately — instead, he looked up towards the pale moon and the stars beyond it. It was...brilliant, to put it lightly. He could see the moon light up the nearby sand with a gentle silver glow, illuminating Lance’s inquisitive face as well. He could see far more stars than he ever could anywhere else, clusters upon clusters of stars, all reflecting upon the water like the ocean held all the secrets in the universe within it.

“I’ve never seen the night sky like this before,” Keith said, at last.

“What do you mean?” Lance followed his gaze towards the night sky.

“Have there always been so many stars?”

Lance shifted his gaze towards Keith. He seemed...absolutely astounded by the sky which Lance stared up at nearly every night.

“Yeah. They’ve always been that way.”

“Huh,” was all Keith said.

They fell into silence.

Lance looked up at Keith from his place in the water. He brought his arms up to support himself on the edge of the balcony. Keith looked absolutely astonished. He looked as though he was seeing the night sky for the very first time, in all its brilliance. Bright, vast, and all at once comforting. And Lance felt...warm? Some _good_ feeling that stemmed from watching this moment. He almost smiled. Almost.

Keith spoke. “Why are you still in the water?”

“I just — like the water,” he said, like a liar.

Keith glanced down at Lance. “So you swam here?”

“Well, yeah,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. A mistake, actually.

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Then you live here?”

Lance stuttered. “Where— where is ‘here?’”

The human gestured vaguely. “Nearby.”

“Oh, then yes!”

“The ocean?”

“Yes!”

Wait, no, _fuck._

“I-I mean, figuratively! I _want_ to live in the ocean, y’know? There’s a lot out there — stuff that we can’t even _begin_ to understand! Who _wouldn’t_ want to live in the ocean, is the _real_ question here,” he recovered, laughing nervously.

Keith looked at him for a few moments, considering. Then he shifted his gaze to the ocean. There was an indiscernible look in his eyes. He spoke slowly. Softly.

“I guess you’re right.”

He seemed a little sad.


	4. wake

There was a certain taboo — an expectation in this little city, that all its citizens would keep to themselves and never try to explore what lies beyond the ocean. It wasn’t necessarily a  _ law, _ but people were constantly spreading horror stories, urban legends about land-dwellers — specifically humans.

Some time ago, this city was partially above water, somehow. (This was  _ centuries _ ago, so Lance couldn’t be sure if all of this was  _ true. _ ) The people were happy, and a sort of culture around exploration began to bud. And people tried, venturing as far away as they dared, as close to the land as they could get before the fear of the unknown forced them to turn back. Until one day, someone — an overzealous youth who wanted to be a local legend — got too bold and ventured too close to land. Far too close. This became the first time his people spotted  _ them  _ — creatures that resembled the merpeople, but  _ walked _ on two strange appendages, wearing equally strange vestments. Their bodies seemed ill-suited for swimming, but it dawned on everyone that these creatures —  _ humans, _ as they were called — were not meant to swim. They were meant to walk. Ceaselessly, from (presumably) the moment they were born, until the moment they died. Ultimately, the careless youth was spotted, and a few of these creatures began to yell and scramble onto some contraptions that resembled a strange sort of seashell, although far larger and made out of an organic material. The youth swam away as fast as he could, unknowingly leading the land-dwellers  _ back _ to the city. And humans — they turned out to be  _ awful _ creatures. Hunting merpeople ceaselessly. At times, bodies of merpeople sans scales would appear in the water. This forced the city underwater, indefinitely. 

That was the children’s story that is taught to every child since birth, at the very least. And it’s been that way ever since. Lance has been told since birth that humans were  _ bloodthirsty _ monsters who would kill him for his scales in an instant.  _ Stay away from land, _ they told him (more than the others).

But Keith…he wasn’t like that. Maybe he was an anomaly — maybe he didn’t  _ know _ what his scales were worth. Whatever the case...Lance found he was beginning to trust Keith. Unknowingly. It was unsettling. That guy — he didn’t deserve Lance’s trust! But then, why did he feel like he was safe with Keith? Maybe he could tell him —

_ Absolutely not! _ Out of the question. Keith didn’t have to know that he was — a merman. Lance strangled the thought as soon as it came.

 

The moon was nearly set by the time Lance returned to his city. His home. He was careful,  _ careful, _ not to make any noise as he went along, trying to sneak into the place he slept. Earlier in the night, he bid his siblings goodnight and snuck away. He was  _ careful _ not to tell anyone where he was going. His parents would  _ kill _ him if they knew what he was doing. He was almost there, just a bit more—

“And where have  _ you  _ been?”

Lance froze in his tracks.  _ Fuck. Shit. _ He whirled around to face — his sister. Veronica. Holding a container of what appeared to be a cluster of tiny glowing creatures. Of course.

“Ah— Veronica! Just went for a little midnight swim! Y’know, gotta stay fit and all that for the  _ ladies,  _ if you catch my drift.” He grinned innocently, flexing his biceps at her.

“Oh  _ really? _ And how long did this  _ ‘midnight swim’ _ take you?” she interrogated, one brow raised.

“Just—y’know, a bit of time. Couldn’t sleep.”

“Right,” she said, eyeing him up and down. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from cowering before her piercing gaze. After a moment, she narrowed her eyes. “Uh-huh. I’m watching you,  _ mañoso. _ You know the rules,” she chastised, pointing a well-manicured finger at her brother. “Don’t go getting yourself into trouble, okay?”

“Yep, got it! No trouble here, no sir.”

She took a moment to look over his demeanor once again. There was a strange look on her face. 

“Don’t venture too close to land. Okay?”

Lance pouted. “I  _ know _ that, everyone keeps telling me. Like I’m some sort of kid.”

Veronica sighed. “I know how you are. And you know how the land-dwellers are. How they can be.”

_ Actually, you’re the one who doesn’t know, _ Lance did not say. “Yeah. I got it,” he said instead, scowling at the floor.

“Be careful.” Her face suddenly turned serious. “We found a human dangerously close to the city.”

Before Lance had the time to respond to that, Veronica said, “Well, goodnight. Don’t be dumb.”

And she turned around, releasing the creatures out of the jar as she left the area.

Lance let out a sort of sigh he didn’t know he was holding. A human? Around  _ here? _ When everyone had been  _ so careful. _ It was like  _ everyone _ in this city hated fun — hated adventuring. Even Veronica was content staying here, never exploring. Their mom expected everyone else in the family believed the same thing. But Lance wouldn’t stand for that. It was—  _ boring. _ That’s no way to live life! How would you ever make new friends if you didn’t expand your horizons, after all? You can’t be scared of something you’ve never interacted with. Like humans. Land-dwellers.

Regardless, there were still curfews, and certain rules in place that would prevent this from ever happening! That would prevent  _ anyone _ from thinking about leaving the city, venturing on beyond the waters that sheltered them. So then, why—

...Unless it was  _ his _ fault. Fuck. Lance knew he must have been the only one breaking every single rule that ever existed regarding  _ staying away from humans. _ But all he ever wanted was a quiet place to go! It wasn’t  _ his _ fault that he was discovered by that  _ damn mullet. _ But then that meant — the human found —  _ Keith! _

He swore to himself. Maybe Keith was there,  _ waiting _ for him to show up — maybe he  _ knew! _ Maybe — maybe he was the one who led Keith here. That would mean…

Lance put his head in his hands. “It’s all my fault.” If Keith died, it was going to be Lance’s fault. But if his  _ people _ were endangered...that would also be his fault. If  _ both _ happened, he might just have to die over it.

(Not literally, of course.)

Okay. Wait, wait,  _ wait. _ Pump the breaks for a second. Maybe...it wasn’t Keith. He  _ just _ saw Keith a few minutes ago! He wouldn’t have enough time to...get over here. Not without Lance noticing.

But still. He needed to be sure. For the second time that night, Lance swam to that old, seemingly-abandoned house. 

 

“Keith!  _ Keith! _ You there?” Lance shouted from the sea. The tide had lowered some since he left, so he couldn’t  _ exactly _ see inside. “Keith!” he tried again, in vain. Lance huffed in frustration. This wasn’t working. He needed to rethink his strategy.

He hoisted his upper body up to the edge of the balcony. He still couldn’t see. If he climbed up to the guardrail, his tail might be seen, but...he  _ had _ to know if Keith was still there. So he did it, immensely thankful for his upper body strength. (He felt like he weighed a  _ ton _ out of the water!)

“Keith! Are you—” 

The glass door suddenly swung open. Keith stood there, annoyed, hair tousled in every which way. “ _ What _ do you want?!”

They both froze as their eyes met. Lance, because he  _ definitely _ wasn’t expecting Keith to come out all of a sudden. Keith, because...well, for obvious reasons. The strange boy he’d been talking to had been — a mermaid.  _ Fuck.  _

“Oh, Keith! I—” Lance laughed nervously, and immediately lost his grip on the hand rail. He tumbled back into the water, splashing loudly. He cursed on the way down. Keith hurried over to watch him fall.

Holy shit.  _ Oh, _ Lance fucked up real bad. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not like this, at least.  _ We’re in the timeline the gods forgot, _ he thought. But — but maybe Keith didn’t see,  _ maybe _ there was a chance they can play this off as just something he does,  _ maybe— _

Suddenly, there was a splash in the water next to him. Lance felt his heart jump in his throat. A hand grabbed his arm firmly. He could see, clear as day,  _ Keith _ in nothing but his undergarments, staring directly at him. Lance hurriedly brought them back to the surface — humans couldn’t breathe underwater! He saw Keith’s exposed chest, the lean muscle underneath, and how his muscles moved as his grip on Lance’s arm tightened.

 

“We need to talk.”


	5. rorschach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact, it's a full moon tonight in the usa. and i also wrote this mostly in my school's library like some sort of heathen  
> here's the link to the [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/hb0dedf3uadivc3gxzvpelmb4/playlist/3uxl2stf91jtNgjTsnuNgh?si=hOEHaLRAQbmWHzZoiMtccg)

What the fuck was going on?

 

Keith had a lot of feelings about the situation he was in.

One: Lance came  _ back _ to the old beachhouse, way past midnight.

Two: Lance was a mermaid.

Three: He fell off of the balcony.

 

Immediately, Keith ran to the edge and held onto the railing, watching Lance land painfully on his back into the water below. He was feeling — a lot. So much. He didn’t know  _ what _ to think of everything. It’s unmistakable; Lance had a large tail where there should have been legs. Though he only saw it for a moment, Keith knew.

 

Four: Keith was the idiot who dove into the water after him.

 

He had a strange thought as he quickly took his sleep clothes off and dove down into the dark, glittering water.  _ Maybe this is normal. _ No, no, that was silly. Keith had never seen a mermaid, as far as he knew. So this — this should be an  _ experience _ for him, right? But why did he feel like this was just  _ normal, everyday _ Lance. Well — okay, maybe that’s because this is what Lance  _ is  _ every day, but Keith  _ felt _ like this was nothing out of the ordinary. Then he remembered.  _ Right. This beach is fucking cursed. _ So it didn’t matter if a mermaid was normal or not. Even if they shouldn’t exist.

Mermaids…Shiro said something about them once. 

“I know there’s something out there,” he’d said, looking out to sea. It was daytime, Shiro was here, and the beachhouse still  _ sucked. _ He had both hands on the balcony’s railing, looking peaceful. Keith didn’t know what to say. He wish he’d said something.

“Most of the planet is covered in water,” he continued. “Most of it is unexplored — there’s  _ gotta _ be giant sea creatures, or, or something mythical, like a selkie. Or mermaids.” He fell silent for a moment, considering. “Apparently, there used to be a port around here. A heavily populated port city. This old house wasn’t built yet, but there was a landing that went around this area that docked all kinds of different ships.” Shiro was smiling. Like it was some nostalgic memory he had of better times. “Of course,  _ that  _ city is long gone. None of the main roads even lead here.” His face had fallen a bit. He spoke softly, “No one knows what happened here. By now, that city would be a Boston, or San Francisco, but it’s just — gone.

“But there’s some history here. Apparently, some of the first mermaid sightings came from this very spot. And now the city is gone.” Shiro turned to face Keith at last. “Interesting, right?”

At the time, Keith thought it was silly. Mermaids didn’t exist — that was just some made up legend, old pirate stories. He didn’t understand then.

There was something else, too. Shiro said something about — about a man who once lived in this beach house. Shiro found his journal. He was alone on this strip of land, trying to lead a Thoreau sort of lifestyle. An aspiring writer. And he saw _them._ At first, just one mermaid. She’d appeared near a rock formation due north of the house. The man was smitten, almost immediately. He kept coming back, and so did she; and during the night, she would meet him as the tide rolled in, swimming up to the balcony. The journal said that the moment they made eye contact, nothing could stop them from seeing each other. They were — _linked._ Or something like that, if he remembered correctly. But he didn’t know what that meant. And there was something, _something else._ Something about a _red_ _something._ Keith couldn’t remember the rest of the story.

He sort of wished he did. Above everything else that was happening, Keith was confused about so, so many things. Earlier in the night, while he and Lance were watching the stars, he felt...warm. Content. It was the safest he’d felt since Shiro disappeared. And it was  _ strange. _ They’d hardly spoken to each other the entire time. Well, about anything that  _ mattered, _ anyways. At some point, Lance began pointing out the constellations. The planets.  _ See that red thing? That’s Mars. There’s Sagittarius, right there. If you look closely, you can almost see Saturn’s rings. _ Keith felt uncharacteristically...soft. Maybe he let his guard down. It was confusing. He wouldn't think about it too hard. He’d blamed it on the stars.

But as Keith made contact with the water, he thought, maybe it wasn’t the stars.

He ignored the sting of saltwater in his eyes and looked for — he saw a tail,  _ right there. _ He grabbed the mermaid’s arm. He made eye contact with Lance, though his vision was quite blurry. Keith pulled him closer. Lance swam to the surface. Everything was beginning to make sense.

“We need to talk.”

Keith furrowed his brows, mouth twisting in a sort of frown. His grip on Lance’s arm tightened. 

“Alright, listen, I can explain,” Lance said quickly.

Keith’s gaze was inscrutable. “Alright. Then explain.”

Lance opened his mouth to speak for a moment, but nothing came out. He shut his mouth. He tried to say something again, but words failed him. He looked like a fish struggling to breathe.

“Uh, yeah, I got nothing actually,” he said at last.

“About how you’re a mermaid?’

“Merman, actually!” Wait,  _ shit, _ he shouldn’t have said anything. There  _ was _ a chance that Lance could get away with this by saying he was training for some...human thing. Humans liked to dress up like them, right? In some sick, convoluted way?

“Right. Merman.” Keith eyed Lance for a moment. And he all but held on for dear life. He couldn’t swim that well. He didn’t think about that.

His eyes—they were dark in the night. Yet, Keith could see the glittering ocean in them, a vague reflection of its reality.

Perhaps this was the cave Keith was in the entire time, staring at the shadows on the wall in front of him. Behind him was the fire, and beyond that—he didn’t know. Not until now. Not until he had the courage to turn away from the shadows and look beyond the fire. As it was, Keith was in his own little cave all along, looking at nothing but the  _ shadows _ of people, the shadow of himself. Beyond the fire was the entrance of the cave, light spilling in from the sun outside.  _ Perhaps,  _ he thought,  _ there was something more beyond the fire all along. Something brighter. _ And Keith, holding onto Lance’s arm like this, finally escaped that cave. He saw—there was another world out there: all at once magnificent and indescribable. A world beyond watching his own shadow flickering on the wall, beyond the mere allegory of the cave.

And he was holding tight to that world.

Keith’s words escaped him. He didn’t even remember what he was going to say. All he saw was Lance — that merman with blue eyes whose existence he did not understand.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

There was a pause. “Tell you what?” Lance avoided eye contact.

“Don’t play dumb!” Keith said sharply, sharper than he meant to. He bumped his knee into Lance’s tail. “About  _ this. _ ”

Lance’s eyes met Keith’s, a strange expression on his face. “For the love of all gods dead and alive, are you  _ dense, _ Keith?!”

Keith paused, grip loosening. A shudder went up his spine. Clouds suddenly began rolling in, darkening the brilliant night sky and the ocean below. Keith stared at Lance—that’s all he  _ could _ do. It was almost as though him saying Keith’s name paralyzed him, both mind and body.

Lance was oblivious to the clouds rolling in. “What kind of question is that? Do you  _ really  _ want me to answer that? How about, oh I don’t know, the fact that  _ your people _ hunted mine for  _ centuries?! _ This place was abandoned for so long and suddenly here  _ you _ come, claiming the place as yours without a second thought!” At this point, Lance tightly gripped Keith by the shoulders, and Keith hung onto one of his arms, trying to stay afloat. “I can’t believe you’d be so, so  _ selfish _ to ask me why I didn’t tell you. Especially after I snuck away all those times because-- _ because, _ ” he cut himself off with a yell of frustration. “I was worried!”

Keith took a moment to take that all in. That was...a lot. There is a history there that Keith could not even begin to imagine. Brows furrowed, he said in a soft voice, “I’m, I’m sorry, Lance, I didn’t know—  _ wait. _ You, why were you  _ worried? _ ”

It began to rain. “I heard a human was found near the city, and he was, taken in. I  _ panicked, _ I didn’t even bother to check  _ who _ it was! So I just, had to be sure, that’s why—” He gestured vaguely at the area they were in. In the distance was a deep rumbling, maybe a few miles away. Neither of them looked up, though they should have. They fell into silence, as did the rumbling. The only noise surrounding them was the soothing  _ pitter patter _ of the rain. It was like the two knew nothing else needed to be said; they simply needed to  _ be. _

But suddenly, the rain was not so soothing. It began to pour down mercilessly, and a look of fear crossed Lance’s face as a flash of lightning struck the shore. “We have to get you back to shore. Right now.”

“What—but it’s just a thunderstorm, Lance—”

“ _ Now! _ ”

But it was too late. Just as he spoke, the clouds parted, revealing a moon that was no longer pale and silver, but dark and  _ red. _ And, most unusually, it began to engulf the both of them in an eerie red glow. Keith absentmindedly remembered that he forgot that was today. But he also knew, this is probably  _ not _ how the moon is supposed to work. Lance knew what this meant — this event only happened  _ by chance _ for those lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time of year. For humans touched by the light of the red moon on the beach, they were marked permanently by his people. But this, it was different. It was supposed to happen to  _ merpeople, _ not anything else! Lance knew, this was the way the moon displayed her approval; a blessing from the stars, the planets, the entire universe. His people knew — everything was connected but nothing was everything. But they had a bit of everything inside of them. Stardust, a bit of the sun, of the moon, of Earth. And this  _ ceremony _ put on by the moon was usually a  _ good _ thing! Lance was still hesitant; this would entirely link him to this human. A human who is not very resilient towards the elements, a human who could  _ die—  _ And suddenly, Lance remembered the thing which sealed their link. It was  _ bad _ for Keith, it was—

A lightning bolt, hitting the space between them. Lance still had his arms on Keith’s shoulders. Completing the circuit.  _ Linking  _ them. That was — but,  _ Keith —! _

 

Then the scene turned to black.


	6. artificial light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what's up guys sorry for the delay  
> here's the [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/hb0dedf3uadivc3gxzvpelmb4/playlist/3uxl2stf91jtNgjTsnuNgh?si=hOEHaLRAQbmWHzZoiMtccg)  
> also guys pls talk to me on tumblr my url is [gaylup](https://gaylup.tumblr.com/) i have no voltron mutuals

Keith’s vision was swimming. The last thing he remembered was the ocean, the redness of the sea, the  _ moon, _ and — and a flash of bright light. Then…then what? What came next? Maybe nothing, maybe this was all a dream, his subconscious whispered to him. Maybe there is no beach house, no Lance, no mermaids. The ocean is just the ocean and not some portal to an unheard mythical world. There is water, there is sand, there are rocks, there are fish. Nothing more.

But Lance...he looked terrified.

In that moment before the blinding white light struck, Lance had this look of horror on his face. Like he  _ knew _ what was happening. It all seemed so real, the light of the red moon on his face, rain beating against them.

Well, it didn’t matter now. Shiro…that’s right! Keith knew where Shiro was, for just an instant. He was —  _ there, _ right there where Keith could touch him, in a blue room. The image of his almost-brother in his mind. Had he...ever really disappeared? Well,  _ yes, _ he did, Keith’s mind shouted at him. But where? Where could he have gone? Shiro was —

_ Home. _

Right.  _ Of course, _ he was here the entire time. Keith walked up to the door that led to home. He turned the key in the lock, the door swung open. And he was  _ there, _ home with Shiro and his fiancé. Adam. Keith almost forgot — Adam didn’t know! Shiro got in a  _ stupid _ fight with him the night before he disappeared, and, and hadn’t talked to him ever since. It’s been a  _ month, _ and — did he still refuse to talk to Shiro? Did he forget? No,  _ no, _ Keith told himself, they love each other. Adam wouldn’t do that. Maybe he thought...Shiro wasn’t coming home. But he  _ would, _ Shiro would never leave like that.

But here, at  _ home, _ Adam was there. Lounging on the couch, sipping a La Croix and reading a book. At Keith’s arrival, he set the book aside and gave the teen a smile.

“Hey Keith! How was school?”

School? But he was just at the—  _ wait. _ That’s right. He just came from school. His backpack was slung over one shoulder. He tossed it carelessly onto another couch.

“It was fine,” he said, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets. “Just same old school.”

“Mr. Smith still giving everyone a hard time?” Adam said with a knowing smirk. His marine biology teacher.

“Oh  _ god, _ yeah. He’s such an asshole. It’s like he hates me or something. He’s so condescending and, and he  _ never _ takes us seriously. It’s like — he treats us like we’re  _ kids!” _

Adam set down his La Croix. “But you  _ are _ kids.”

Keith sent a grimace his way. He just laughed. Keith was on his way to the kitchen when he suddenly stopped, considered, and turned around to face Adam again.

“Is...Shiro home?”

“Yeah, of course he is. He’s in the kitchen.”

Keith let out a huff of what could be considered laughter. Right. Yeah, of course. Shiro was home too. “Thanks.”

Maybe this  _ was  _ all a dream. Some silly, far off dream that he was unfortunate enough to have experienced. Everything was normal. Or at least, he hoped it was. He stepped into the kitchen and — everything was normal. The counters were clean, the kitchen knives were neatly organized in their wooden container, there was a fresh pot of coffee brewing Shiro’s favorite — Typica. And Shiro, he was  _ there, _ washing the dishes, smiling warmly at Keith upon his entrance. He shut the water off and grabbed a rag to dry his hands with. He turned to face Keith.

“Hey, kiddo! Have a nice walk?”

_ Shiro, _ he was  _ there, _ and Keith — he couldn’t help himself. He hadn’t seen Shiro in so  _ long, _ he thought he was dead! He ran to Shiro, who caught him in a hug. Keith had never been great at physical affection, but he was just,  _ so glad.  _ He was flooded with relief. He didn’t even hesitate.

“Woah, Keith! This is a first. Did something happen?” Shiro said, amusement in his voice.

“No, I just.” Keith sighed and broke the hug. He crossed his arms. “I had this dream. That you and Adam had a fight and you showed me this, this  _ stupid,  _ weathered, probably haunted beach house, and you — you disappeared. A-And there was this  _ mermaid _ that showed up on that beach and —” he cut himself off with a shake of his head. It was a silly dream, that was all. He didn’t need to tell Shiro all of this. He moved his hand as if to wave away the dream. “It’s dumb, I know. But it just felt so  _ real.  _ I thought you were dead.”

Shiro paused, considering. Then he smiled and put a reassuring hand on Keith’s shoulder. “I’m not dead, Keith. I promise.”

Keith looked up, about to return the smile, but — there was this strange look on Shiro’s face. It conveyed a sense of urgency, like something bad was going to happen if he didn’t act quickly. And suddenly — things around the kitchen began to look... _ off. _ The tiled floor was a slightly different color than he remembered, the cabinets seemed a bit small, and the clock — Keith couldn’t see any numbers on it. He looked back to Shiro.

“Listen, Keith. I don’t have much time. I’m not dead, but you need to find me. Your friend will know where to look. He knows.”

Keith blinked, taking it in. “What — Shiro, what are you talking about? You’re  _ right here.” _

Shiro merely shook his head. “You need to wake up now. Someone’s worried about you.”

“What? What does that mean?” Keith said, brow furrowed. 

But the scene was quickly fading away, spiraling into a sea of white, slipping away, even as Keith tried desperately to hold on. He panicked, called out, but everything was spinning and he couldn’t tell up from down — he couldn’t even see his own hands reaching out for something he could not grasp.

_ You know where I am. _

That was all he heard before he registered — someone was shaking him. Someone had their hands on his shoulders and was...they were being annoying, actually. That, and there was this bright light behind his eyelids.

_ “Keith? Keith!” _

Was someone calling him? The person shook his shoulders again. Keith must have made a strange face because the person said, “Keith! Oh thank the gods, you’re alright!”

That voice, that was…

He groaned, head like lead as he tried to sit up.

“Woah, woah! Take it easy, buddy!” Lance said, gently pushing his shoulders back down. Keith opened his eyes just a crack and saw Lance’s worried but relieved face leaning over him and — it was early morning. 

“What...what happened?” he asked in a tired voice, trying to gather his bearings. Before Lance could reply, Keith suddenly remembered,  _ the dream—! _

He quickly sat up, almost knocking foreheads with Lance, who said something in protest. But that didn’t matter, what mattered was that  _ Lance _ was here, on shore, and he — he couldn’t  _ really _ be a merman, right? They can’t live on land. Right, right, that was all a fever dream Keith had. He must have hit his head really hard.

But laying atop the sand, glittering in the morning sun, was that magnificent fish tail. Its iridescent scales reflecting light in the strangest way, fading to a dark blue towards the tip, rivaling the color of the sea. It was even more brilliant in the daylight.

Oh he hit his head, alright.  _ Really, _ really hard.

“Everything alright, mullet head?”

Maybe he was going crazy. Or maybe he came to his senses. Tentatively, Keith reached out to  _ touch _ it, those beautiful scales, the lean muscle, Lance’s pride and joy. He gently rested his hand on it. It was strong, lean, but had this...magical quality that Keith couldn’t— 

“Uhh...you good? Keith?”

Keith looked up at Lance and snatched his hand away. He just — he  _ touched _ the tail. _ Oh my god.  _ What was  _ wrong _ with him?

“I’m fine,” he said curtly.

Lance’s brow furrowed. Keith just noticed that Lance’s cheeks were slightly flushed. “Nuh-uh, you’re not  _ fine.  _ Not after getting struck by lightning.”

“Wait, I was—  _ what?!” _

“Yeah! I thought you  _ died! _ ”

Keith looked down at himself, at his hands. The creases in his palms looked the same, pink with warmth. He still had more creases in his right hand than in his left. His knuckles were the same as always, right hand lightly scarred from hitting a brick wall once. (It wasn’t a very good decision.) And he could see the veins under his skin. Always a cool green. Everything was the same, even that weird way his pinkies were bent.

No signs of a lightning strike. He idly rubbed his index finger with his thumb, thinking. 

Lance was...nervous. And the mostly dry sand was bugging him. He shifted his weight, looking at the human. He could have just swam from this place, left Keith on the beach before he woke up. Let him think that Lance the Merman was a dream. Or whatever he wanted to think. But he couldn’t do that now, not anymore. 

“What happened here, Lance?” Keith said at last. He sounded...tired. “The moon was— was  _ red _ and it started raining, and—” he shook his head resolutely, cutting himself off. “This doesn’t make any sense! You have this, this  _ tail,  _ and all these be—  _ scales _ and, fuck!” He threw his hands up in absolute frustration. He almost called Lance’s tail  _ beautiful. _ He put his head in his hands. _ Ugh. _ Who was he turning into?

Lance hesitated. “L-Listen, Keith. It’s really complicated. There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” A beat passed. He dared to make eye contact with Keith. “About us.”

Keith looked up. He gestured for him to go on.

“A long time ago, — I’m talking centuries here — merpeople didn’t know much about land dwellers. And we didn’t care about them, either. There used to be a port here, too. I guess the city was growing so much that they needed more space.” He shrugged. “I think people started exploring beyond the city, and someone ended up here.” He gestured at the beach around them.

Keith furrowed his brows.  _ Just like Shiro said. _

“Let’s just say...humans weren’t very nice to him. As soon as they saw him — or her, I honestly can’t remember — they started hunting for more of us. I don’t remember what happened after that, but we were forced to stay within the city’s limits. And that’s still how it is now.”

“But you...you’re  _ right here. _ ” Keith interjected.

Lance chuckled and gave Keith a wink. “I never said that everyone followed the rules.” He leaned in closer to Keith, holding himself up with his hands. “Why? Does that add to my  _ charm _ ?”

Keith shoved his face away. “Not even close. This doesn’t have anything to do with what happened last night.”

“ _ Hey! _ I just wanted to give you some backstory!” He huffed and stubbornly crossed his arms. “Are you  _ sure _ you want to know what happened last night?”

“ _ Lance.” _

“Alright! Just asking!” Lance cleared his throat. “This is gonna be kind of weird. For you, at least. I think. Do humans get linked?”

“What? What’s that?”

“Okay, so, uh. For merpeople, there’s this...built-in attraction to the person they’re going to be linked to, but it’s very subtle. Two people that are linked sort of...have a bit of the same space dust in them? And that force draws them together.”

“Sort of like soulmates.” Keith added.

“Er— sure! If that makes it easier.” He took a moment to collect his thoughts. “There’s this whole ceremony that makes two people officially linked, but it’s orchestrated by the moon.”

“The moon,” Keith deadpanned.

“You know, I don’t  _ have  _ to tell you what happened—”

“Sorry, I’ll shut up. Go on.”

“Right. Well, it only happens at night when the moon is at its fullest.”

“Like last night.”

“Uh— yeah. Let me finish though. My people believe that everything in the universe is connected, but nothing is everything. So in a sense, you and I are connected to this sand, this beach, that dwelling. But that also means that you and I are connected, just like we’re connected to a baby turtle or the ocean breeze. We all have a bit of the sun, moon, and Earth in us.” At this point, Lance was looking out to sea. “When the moon turns red, and shines on two people like that, it shows her blessing. But if it shines on a human…”

“What? Lance, what happens?”

“They get marked. Not physically, but we know where that human is at all times. And we don’t like it.” Keith looked panicked. Lance quickly added, “But I don’t think that happened with you! I don’t hate you, so that’s a good sign!”

Keith breathed out a sigh of relief. Lance was going on about something else, but he didn’t pay attention to that. He couldn’t make himself focus on the words. Instead, his mind wandered to the night before. He saw flashes of memories, of the red moon, of the suddenly cloudy sky, of the rain. The  _ rain. _ It came out of nowhere.

“What about the, the storm clouds? The rain?” he interrupted.

“Right, the storm! There’s always a lightning strike at the end to seal the deal. The storm symbolizes —” he suddenly cut himself off. He can’t just say it symbolizes  _ the storm of emotions going on in both parties. The more intense the storm, the more intense the emotions. _ Absolutely not. That was out of the question.  _ Especially _ considering how fast the storm got so...intense. “Uh. It symbolizes the...hardships the two faced in getting there.” Solid save.

“So...what happened to us?” Keith said, beginning to piece it all together.

“Well,” Lance began, voice unusually high. “I don’t know. This shouldn’t be possible.”

But his voice was far away to Keith. Last night, there was a full moon. It turned red.  _ Because of the lunar eclipse, that’s all. _ They were in the water. Clouds seemed to appear out of nowhere.  _ But that happened on the beach, right? _ And, there was lightning, and Lance’s arms around Keith’s shoulders, and—

_ They were linked. Soulmates.  _

 

Keith needed to lay down.


	7. mouth of the cave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHATS up guys im not dead after all, heres 2.3k words of Somethin  
> [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/hb0dedf3uadivc3gxzvpelmb4/playlist/3uxl2stf91jtNgjTsnuNgh?si=hOEHaLRAQbmWHzZoiMtccg) and my [tumblr](gaylup.tumblr.com) (pls talk to me)

This was too much to deal with. Honestly. Just a few weeks ago, he was home, never thinking of the ocean. Just him, school, homework, detention, Adam, Shiro. Keith just — he needed a moment. A moment to think, to not think, just pretend things are _normal._

He told Lance to go home before he got in trouble, leaving Keith to get dressed and sit on the steps of that _fucking beach house._ He was mildly surprised that they didn’t collapse under him. He was facing away from the ocean. The steps leading up to the house were on the cliff that most of the house was situated on. It was kind of a stupid design, really. On one side of the house, there was the safe, trusty rocky cliff. On the other side, a volatile ocean that _no one_ should trust. It’s a miracle that the support beams under the house haven’t collapsed yet. It was _doubly_ stupid because the cliff just sort of dropped off at a 90 degree angle, and though there was also sand leading down to the beach (where Lance brought Keith the night before), it was far too steep to safely venture down. Or that’s how it seemed to Keith. He always took the long way around, heading North until he could safely climb down. Stupid, _cursed_ beach. Whoever built this house was an _idiot._

He huffed and ran a hand through his bangs, trying to get a weird clump of dried seawater and sand untangled from his hair. Keith would never understand why Shiro wanted to spend time _here,_ of all places. The house could collapse at any minute, no matter how much Shiro wanted to fix it. Also? Everything in the house was constantly, just, _moist._ The sea breeze brought seawater inside _somehow_ and coated everything in a _weird,_ slightly damp layer of _god knows what._ All of his clothes were uncomfortably damp all the time, and he felt like he had sweaty palms all the time, except over his entire body. He just. He wanted to go home. But he wasn’t sure where that was.

His mind wandered a bit. He thought about this and that, about the taste of coffee, about the smell of his room, about birds that _weren’t fucking seagulls._ He was even starting to miss school. And he hated school. But most of all, as he watched the early morning turn slowly into the usual overcast daytime, he thought of Shiro. He _must_ be alive. He has to be. Shiro sails excellently — there’s no way he could have gotten lost at sea. His boat didn’t even turn up, either.

It had to do with this beach. There was something here, something _missing._ A piece of the puzzle that Keith just couldn’t find. He already looked in the beach house, scoured every square inch of the place  — the only sign that Shiro was ever there was a jacket he left behind. That was strange in itself. Shiro would _never_ go sailing without his jacket, no matter how sunny it was. _The weather could change at a moment’s notice,_ he’d tell Keith. It was his favorite jacket. He would never leave it behind.

He put his head in his hands. _Come on, Keith, think. Something doesn’t add up here._ For a minute, he thought that he should call Adam, try to see if Shiro was there. But that didn’t seem right. Keith left abruptly. He couldn’t just talk to Adam after all that. He didn’t even tell him that he was leaving. Facing Adam now, after the two people closest to him disappeared, was simply unthinkable. He’d deal with that later.

And then he thought — _Lance. Lance might be able to help._ The other part of him wanted to throw that idea in the garbage. No. Absolutely not. Not until he figured out how he felt about — about the whole _situation._ He knew there was confusion. Anger. And something else. But he didn’t want to think about that. The whole thing was probably some big misunderstanding, anyways. A mistake on behalf of the universe.

Still, thinking of Lance — there was something he said the night before. _When the moon turns red and shines on two people like that, it shows her blessing. But if it shines on a human…_

If it shines on a human, _what?_ There was something there — this was _important._ Come on, Keith, _think!_ They get — _what was it._ Marked! Right, and...and that still meant nothing to Keith. He couldn’t remember. He groaned in frustration, rubbing his eyes. _God_ , this was frustrating. He should know where Shiro is! He had that — that _dream_ where he was _home_ and everything was okay, but just a little out of place, and, and Shiro said, _Your friend will know where to look._ His friend. _His friend._

That meant that Shiro could be—!

His thoughts were interrupted by a seagull. _Right in front of him._ It looked directly at Keith. The bird opened its mouth wide and started calling at him.

“Go away. I don’t have any food,” he said, waving his arm in the bird’s direction.

But the bird merely tilted its head to the side, almost as if it were considering something. But then it hopped up a step and called again, a little differently this time. Keith groaned and leaned his head back on another step behind him. The bird wouldn’t relent. It kept calling. _Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha._ Like it was saying something. _Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha._ Almost like it was laughing at Keith. Right. He shouldn’t get his hopes up. Lance didn’t know anything. Keith couldn’t trust everything he said. They weren’t — Lance was _not_ his friend.

“I get it. I’m pathetic. Thinking Shiro is alive after all this time. You don’t need to laugh at me,” he murmured.

The bird jumped up another step, right by Keith’s feet. It bit at the bottom of Keith’s pants.

“ _Hey!_ Watch it!” He quickly leaned forward to wave the bird away.

And the bird did fly away for a moment, only to land on the base of the staircase, looking up at Keith. It was...weird. Most birds gave up at this point, too scared to stay. Then it did something, something _strange._ It nodded its head towards the South, and looked back at Keith. Keith stood up.

“What?”

The seagull nodded in that direction again, more urgently. It began to trot in that direction, stopping to look back at Keith. It wanted him to _follow._ And Keith — he was _actually_ walking down the stairs. He chuckled mirthlessly and looked at the sky for a moment. _Maybe I’m losing my fucking mind. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing that’s happened all week._

So he followed the bird. The fucking _seagull._ He knew it was ridiculous — where would this bird take him? What does a _bird_ know about anything? Still, Keith simply huffed and shoved his hands into his pockets. The seagull turned back and squawked.

“I’m _coming,_ Jesus Christ!”

 

*** 

 

As soon as Lance was sent off by Keith, he looked up at the sky and cursed the ancient gods. It was already morning! He swam faster than he ever had in his life to make it back to the city before too many people woke up. He left so quickly, not even thinking about the consequences — but Lance couldn’t help it! He was so worried that _Keith_ might have been in danger, and, and _fuck,_ maybe he really is now. Lance fucked up. Even _that_ is putting it lightly. He should have stopped looking for that damn mullet boy, stopped meeting him, stopped going to the shore entirely. He broke _literally_ every single rule there was to break, he’d have to pay the consequences. Apparently the universe thought linking him to a _human_ would be funny. Ha ha.

But — whatever. It was getting brighter by the second, and he’d barely snuck back into his room when someone else came in through the seaweed that acted as a door. It was Veronica.

“Hey Lance—” she began, but her words died in her throat. She rushed to him. “Is everything okay? Are you okay? You don’t have another case of no-pox, do you?”

He must have had a weird look on his face. In any case, he waved her hands away and tried to turn so he didn’t have to look at her directly. “I’m fine, Ronnie. Honestly, you get worked up so ea—”

She cut him off by grabbing his arm and forcing him to face her. “Don’t you ‘I’m fine Ronnie’ me. You _know_ that you’re a terrible liar.” Veronica loosened her grip, looking at her brother. A moment later, she enveloped him in a hug. “Listen. Whatever happened, you can tell me. I’m your big sister.” She paused to hold Lance at arm’s length. “Did you get into a fight with Hunk again? Did _another_ girl reject you?” She raised a brow, lips curling up into a smirk. “Did you finally get a girlfriend?”

Lance could have laughed. Laughed and cried. He almost forgot how nice his sister could be. Almost. This whole situation was too much.

“It’s really _nothing!_ I just couldn’t sleep much last night, that’s all.” He tried his best to sound convincing.

Veronica furrowed her brow, looking back and forth between Lance’s eyes. Scrutinizing. “Did you take _another_ midnight swim?”

“No! No, I didn’t. I’m not _dumb,_ Ronnie,” he said, you know, like a liar. “I was just — thinking.”

“About..?” she pressed.

“Well — okay, listen, don’t laugh. I had a thought.” He hesitated, trying to find the right words. “What if — stay with me now — what if we could link with a land dweller? Like, a human for example. Is that even possible? It’s silly, I know, but…”

Lance trailed off, watching as his sister withdrew her hands and her expression became suddenly unreadable.

“Uh...Ronnie? Earth to Veronica?”

“It’s impossible.”

He blinked. Right. Of course it was. He laughed to ease the tension and said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”

“What made you think of that?” she said quite suddenly.

“I was just — curious—”

“Lance, you _know_ you’re not supposed to go outside of the city!”

“I didn’t say that I did!”

“Are you sure, Lance? Did you even stay at home the whole night?”

“I was just curious, like I said,” he tried again.

Her expression softened. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and sighed. “You can tell me.”

Lance clenched his jaw. He wanted to cry. Everything happened so much.

 

*** 

 

As Keith followed the bird, his scowl softened into a look of genuine curiosity. The land shifted from rocky cliff to grass, to pebbles, and back to rocky shore. Keith had never been this way before. The ocean still crashed on the shore nearby, and at some point, the ground became level with the beach. He watched as the waves gently came up the shore, then receded, leaving little shells and sea foam in its wake. He felt the smooth corroded rocks beneath his feet, felt the cool seawater as it rolled over his feet.

It was oddly soothing. It made him feel connected to...well, everything. In that single instance wherein Keith was in some isolated part of the world, having no company except for the seagull, he truly felt like he was with everyone he ever cared about. He felt the warm embrace of his father, the comforting presence of Adam sitting next to him on the couch, the annoying way Shiro liked to ruffle his hair. He even felt his mother, whom he’d never seen. He felt her love, the pain she felt from leaving him. It was enough to make him stop in his tracks. He gazed suddenly towards the ocean, feeling a sort of longing. Keith never stopped to think why his mother left him and his father; he used to think that she was just selfish and too self-absorbed to care about the family she helped create. Now he could see that she _had_ to leave. He felt the sadness that plagued her every day, though she knew that she could not allow it to consume her. He understood.

He felt someone else there, too. But he couldn’t quite tell who it was.

At the sound of a flutter of wings, Keith looked up to see that the seagull flew up to the top of a short cliff, about twenty feet off the ground. Apparently, _this_ is where the bird wanted to lead him. He sighed and ran a hand through his bangs. The seagull called to him, and he suddenly remembered all at once that he was an idiot. That’s what he gets for following a _bird._ Literally nothing.

He huffed and began to turn around when he suddenly realized — this wasn’t nothing at all. He took a step towards the ocean and saw, clear as day, the opening to a _cave._ Sunlight gently reflected off the ocean to shroud the mouth of the cave in a magical sort of air. Curious, he carefully approached, as if something would jump out at him from nowhere. He was vaguely aware of the seagull calling. _This_ is what he gets for following a bird. _This._

 

When he looked back, the seagull was gone. Adventure awaited.


	8. belly of the cavern

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanted to update yesterday but it was halloween so that didn’t happen but happy november ! fun fact my birthday is on thanksgiving this year isn’t that wack  
> here’s the link to the [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/hb0dedf3uadivc3gxzvpelmb4/playlist/3uxl2stf91jtNgjTsnuNgh?si=hOEHaLRAQbmWHzZoiMtccg) and my [tumblr](gaylup.tumblr.com)  
> idk how many chapters this is gonna be but i sense it ending before 15 chapters (but tbh don’t hold me to that im making this up as i go along)

Lance caved. He caved too easily. It took just a little bit of prodding, of reassuring words. He told Veronica everything, about how he ventured too close to the shore in the early morning, watching the sun rise sometimes (all the time), about how he constantly snuck out, about how a _human_ suddenly appeared once he’d gotten settled in one spot, about Keith’s _stupid_ mullet and his _stupid_ face and his _stupid everything_ and how he kept appearing! About how they’d stayed up and watched the stars last night (though that seemed like an eternity ago), how he enjoyed every second of it, how he freaked out when Veronica told him about the human they captured — how he _had_ to check, he just _had_ to! He didn’t realize how far gone he was, not until the words were spilling from his mouth.

He quickly turned away, cutting himself off. He stopped just short of telling her that _he’s pretty sure he’s linked with a human._

“Lance…” she tried, softly.

He shook his head, and muttered something softly. Veronica reached out to touch his shoulder, but he flinched away like her hand was a hot coal against his skin.

“Oh, _hermanito…_ how did this happen?”

He turned back to her miserably. His voice was barely above a whisper.”I think...Ronnie, I couldn’t stay away.” Lance turned fully to face her, arms hugging his sides. “There was something about him. I don’t know. I should have run, I _know_ that!” He ran a hand through his hair and huffed, sending little bubbles floating up around him. “There’s something weird happening with him. If you saw him, you’d know.” He looked up at her resolutely. “I’m not going crazy. I — I really don’t like him at all! He probably had some, some _magic_ mermaid bait hidden in his dumb hair or something — that’s why his hair always smelled so good! That’s why I kept coming back! It was that! He _baited_ me into going there, for some weird, twisted reason, _I know it_ —”

“ _Lance,_ ” came the voice of his sister. He looked at her again, brows furrowed. Her face was indiscernible. She pursed her lips. “There’s...there’s no such thing.”

He blinked. And then blinked again. The air was tense.

“Look. Lance, something happened between you two. I won’t tell anyone,” she interjected before he could say anything, “but. And this is a _huge_ but. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the whole story.”

“But—that _is_ the whole story.”

She gave him a pointed look. He faltered a bit. _There’s no such thing._ Mermaid bait. _No such thing._ Lance was coming to a frightening realization. His skin prickled.

“Did he see you? Your tail?” she asked softly.

Lance tried in vain to swallow the lump quickly forming in his throat. He didn’t want to lie. But he also didn’t want to admit that he did something wrong. That he broke every single rule and had to pay the price. He bit the inside of his cheek. It all seemed worth it, somehow. Lance knew instinctively — he would do it all over again if given the choice. All to see Keith once more, to see his _stupidly_ soft mullet, to feel the warmth of his skin. He remembered being scared, _terrified_ when Keith lay on the sand unconscious, the only thing keeping him calm was the warmth of the human’s bare chest and his deep breathing, as though he were simply dreaming. He ran his fingers through Keith’s damp hair, almost on instinct. He couldn’t stop himself. All he could do was try to wake him up. Lance talked to him, sang his favorite song to him, touched his chest. Until he settled on shaking Keith’s shoulders and calling his name. And when Keith rested a hand on Lance’s scales, a shudder went up his spine. It freaked him out for a second. But when Keith pulled away, Lance almost wanted to grab his hand. And that was perhaps the most frightening thing of all.

“I think,” he began quietly, “I think something’s wrong with me.”

 

***

 

Seagull gone, Keith peered into the cave he was led to. He could hear the sound of the ocean behind him, calm in the late morning light. The cave was dark, the entrance being this half-formed arch about seven feet tall, four feet wide. Unlike the rest of the beach, there was sand here, velvety between his feet. The sand was smooth — and still wet from the ocean. There was a quiet dripping sound coming from within, almost like a soothing lullaby. Keith took a deep breath and slowly walked inside. There was no telling where this would go.

It was dark. Really dark. Keith tried to squint through the darkness, to try and feel his way around the slick walls and damp sand. The dripping noise was becoming steadily louder as he ventured blindly. Eventually, he sighed in defeat, taking out his phone (which had no service, at this point it was more of a comfort thing to carry it around), and turning the flashlight on. It helped, though not as much as he’d like, though could see, clear as day, that he was about to slip down into a lower part of the cave. He chewed his bottom lip and turned around to face the entrance of the cave, the sunlight was quickly getting further and further away. There was no turning back. Keith turned resolutely towards the darkness, and carefully slid down the incline of sand that led into what he could only assume to be the belly of the cavern. It smelled like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, only saltier. When he reached the bottom, he felt some sort of abnormal engraving on the wall he was using to steady himself. He turned to his left, shining the light towards his hand.

They looked like some sort of runes — a language Keith had never seen before. He took a step back and shined his phone at more of the cave wall. There were more runes, lining the wall as far as Keith could see. He turned again to the first runes he saw, studying them. There was a sort of sharpness about them, a strange sort of beauty that could strike the observer at a moment’s notice — almost like a rose, but with sharper thorns. He gently ran his fingers over a few of them in awe, feeling as though there was a deep meaning in each and every letter. Acting as though on instinct, he pressed his forehead to the wall and breathed deeply. The dripping sound was loudest in this part of the cave, the sound bouncing off the cavern walls. He felt strangely at ease in what is perhaps the darkest cave in all of existence (and he saw the irony of it; he was probably afraid of the dark). The darkness wasn’t an oppressive force — it was more like a weighted blanket on a stormy night.

And then something strange happened.

Keith looked closely at one rune. And he found that he could make out what it said if he looked hard enough. He leaned back a bit to see if it wasn’t just a trick of the light, but he found that he could make out a full sentence.

_Sing as loud as you dare for the maiden who did not care._

He blinked, running his fingers along the engravings. Keith knew he didn’t know this language — he’d never seen it before! Yet there it was, plain as day. It made no sense, but to be fair, nothing seemed to make sense anymore. He read the sentence again.

“Sing as loud as you dare…” he murmured to himself thoughtfully.

His hand jerked back away from the wall as the runes carved into the wall began to softly glow, filling the air with what Keith could only describe as some weird sort of _magic._ Almost like — how he felt when he gently touched Lance’s scales. It tingled throughout his being, more intense than before, inexplicably sharpening his senses. He looked back up at the language he did not know and found that it was a story of a maiden — a mermaid — who ventured too far to the shore and discovered a human man living all alone in a dwelling just off the shore. She watched him from afar at first, utterly fascinated by everything he did. Eventually, she built up the courage and appeared to him to the north of his dwelling. It was almost like love at first sight, though a bit different. It was almost as though their souls were intertwined and destined to meet in one life or another. The names were scratched out. Keith took a step to the right, trying to read more. But he stepped in a puddle.

There was a flash of blinding light, making the cave disappear entirely. It seemed to be coming from the _puddle!_ Keith tried in vain to shield his eyes, heart suddenly racing.

When the light subsided, Keith was somewhere else. Suddenly, it was dusk, and he was standing at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. There was a couple seated at the cliff’s edge. The woman leaned into the man, who in turn brought his arm up to rest protectively on her shoulder. He had shaggy jet black hair, broad shoulders, and wide hands. Yet, he was gentle. The woman sighed contently. She had short, dark hair, thin ponytail peeking out from the bottom. It seemed to be a different color. It was then that Keith realized with a start that she seemed to be completely shirtless. He was intruding on a tender, intimate moment here. Keith was about to turn around when the woman spoke.

 _“The sunset is so lovely from up here.”_ Her voice was like a song.

The man hummed, low and agreeing. _“We could see them every day.”_ He turned to her, and Keith could see there was a scar over his eyebrow, though he couldn't see the rest of his face quite so clearly. _“You can stay here.”_

She laughed. _“You know I can’t do that, silly man.”_

_“Well, why not?”_

She turned to face him. _“You know why not.”_

Resigned, the man sighed and turned back to watch the sunset. _“I’m sorry. I know.”_

_“Let’s enjoy what we have right now.”_

The scene turned white again with that same blinding light, though this time he was on the beach, right next to the familiar rock formation where he met Lance. He gazed to his left and found the couple again, standing together, hand in hand. Keith stayed silent.

 _“Say, ——?”_ She said the man’s name. Keith knew she did. But he somehow didn’t hear it.

_“Yeah?”_

_“Let’s dance.”_

And suddenly, she was facing him and pulling his reluctant hands towards her. The man laughed. She was pushing him backwards — alarmingly close to Keith! He scrambled to get out of the way, but they didn’t seem to notice. In fact, Keith was _certain_ he brushed against the man, yet he felt nothing. Experimentally, he tried placing a hand on the woman’s arm, only for it to go right through her. _Oh,_ he thought. _This isn’t real._ Suddenly the man was pushed up against the rock formation by the woman, who was now cupping his face with one hand and guiding his hand towards her lower stomach with the other. He seemed shocked, yet overjoyed. Keith couldn’t really see his face very clearly. The two smiled at each other. There was no need for words.

The blinding light was there again.

This time, Keith was in a strangely familiar place. He recognized the floorboards, the curtains, the windows, the not-peeling-anymore walls. This was the beachhouse. He was in the beachhouse, except — it seemed brand new. Everything was new; the curtains were no longer moth-bitten, there was no mold forming on the floor, and the windows shut all the way. It seemed...drier. Warmer. Very much unlike the cold dampness he was accustomed to. In the living room, Keith saw the couple again, cradling something precious. The woman turned, and he could see — there was an infant.

 _“He has your nose,”_ the man said fondly. _“And your chin.”_

 _“Thank the gods he doesn’t have my ears!”_ she exclaimed, and Keith suddenly realized — her ears tapered off into a weird sort of point that Keith had never seen. Except — maybe Lance. But he didn’t remember. He didn't know why he thought about Lance in the first place.

 _“Let’s name him Yu——,”_ the woman said suddenly.

The man made a face before merely placing a kiss on the crown of her head with a gentle chuckle. _“How about K——? We don’t want him to get teased in school.”_ He said a name. Keith didn’t quite catch it. He didn’t catch the name the woman said, either. It sounded much like...static.

The woman repeated the name, yet it still eluded Keith.  _I like that. It has a nice ring to it.”_

The white light came again. Keith held onto the scene as long as he could, trying to make some sense of it. Why was he seeing this?

In the next scene, it was nighttime. Keith found himself on the balcony of the now new beachhouse. The ocean was angrier than he remembered it being at high tide. It splashed dangerously onto the balcony, inching towards the double glass doors that now seemed to come right out of a movie about Marie Antoinette. The woman was holding the child again, who now seemed a little bit older. Maybe a month had passed.

 _“I have to leave.”_ She cradled the child — _her_ child — close to her chest. _“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for leaving you here. I’m sorry.”_ Her voice was full of emotion, and it was only then that Keith realized that she was crying. She handed the child back to the man with a choked sob. Keith then realized, that he was crying silent tears as well. They both shared a look that told him no words need be said. She leaned up to kiss him, cupping his cheek, sweet and chaste. She pulled away after a moment with a sad smile, gently wiping away one of his tears. Keith felt like crying, like there was some strange part of his memory that tugged at his heartstrings. Though he had no memory of it.

Then she turned away, climbing on top of the railing. She gazed out at the ocean for a moment, and for just an instant, Keith jerked forward, as if to stop her. But some invisible force held him back as she bent her knees and sprung off of the balcony, diving into the icy water.

Yet just before she breached the water, something strange happened. Her legs suddenly weren’t quite right — as she dove, they glowed with a purplish light, illuminating the balcony for a moment, turning into a brilliant mauve tail that disappeared with the woman into the ocean.

Keith dumbly stumbled backwards in disbelief. The scene fizzled away before his eyes, and the next thing he knew, he was back in the cave, out of the puddle. He landed hard on his tailbone, feeling the wet sand give slightly beneath him. He clenched his jaw in pain. He looked up and scrambled away from _that fucking puddle._ The runes seemed to hum contentedly all around him, glowing a soft lilac before eventually blinking out and leaving Keith in total darkness. 

He was breathing hard and fast, clutching at his chest, like he'd just run a marathon. _What the fuck was that?_ he probably said out loud. His head whipped around all about him, his phone  _somehow_ in his pocket, and he was all alone. No strangers, no ocean, no beachhouse. Adrenaline pumped in his veins _—_ a shaky sort of energy that made him momentarily forget where he was. All he could focus on was one thing: that woman was no ordinary woman.

She was a mermaid. Keith didn’t know what to make of it.

 

He needed to see Lance.


	9. beachtowel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter took a different turn than i meant it to. more to come soon (hopefully)  
> my birthday is actually on thanksgiving this year (dope) so hopefully i can get something up by then! no promises, but i want to.  
> also tbh I sort of agonized over this chapter more than the others (as of yet), which is why it’s so late. and also i appreciate each and every one of your comments, no matter how small. i swear...you guys are too nice :’)  
> anyhow! enjoy

Keith ran.

 

He blindly ran over the slope, retracing his steps, running as fast as his bare feet would take him to the mouth of the cave. His feet left soft sand and met slick stone, yet he did not stop running — not even when the afternoon light threatened to blind him with the ferocity of the sun’s gaze. He felt like he was on the precipice of some frightening revelation that he wanted no part of; something thrummed within his very being, threatening to burst out of him at any moment. It was a terrifying feeling. He did his best to shove that feeling back down deep into his subconscious, avoid it as much as possible. If he caused himself any more crises, he might just die.

And yet — as he tried to recall the faces he’d seen in the cave, he found that there was...nothing to remember. Of course, he remembered what _happened,_ but everything was fuzzy. He could only seem to recall the child’s face. The child had a mop of thick black hair, full cheeks — but nothing else of importance. Keith squeezed his eyes shut as he felt the sun hit his face; everything was so confusing, so dizzying, almost like he was trying to drunkenly swim. He leaned forward and put his face in his hands, trying to recollect himself. His heart thrummed away in his chest, like the wings of a hummingbird.

This had to be some kind of weird dream. That _had_ to be it. It wasn’t every day someone walks into a cave where runes start glowing a weird purple and feed memories into their mind. He chanced a look back into the cave — it was just a normal-looking sea cave. It still seemed...eerie.

It was almost like he could hear whispers coming from within. Keith scrambled away.

Unwittingly, he ended up ankle-deep in the water.

He didn’t know where to go. He wanted to get as far away as he could from this cave, but he didn’t want to go back to the beachhouse, either. Not after seeing its history. Keith cast his gaze towards the ocean, finally taking notice of a brightly colored coral reef just beyond the shore, sunlight dancing in abstract figures all around. He couldn’t help but imagine how much more vibrant the colors would be from underwater. How did he not notice something like this before?

_Because you weren’t looking, obviously._

Keith took another step into the water. It was pleasantly cool; he never stopped to notice the soothing feeling of the sea lapping at one’s ankles. It reminded him of how his dad used to pour cool water on his sunburns, gently chastising him for not putting sunscreen off before going out to dig around in the desert sands near their house. The ocean...it almost made him miss the desert. Almost. This was pretty much one of the only times he’d been at the beach in his life, and he was all alone. In a way, it felt...lonely. Anywhere else, he would have been just fine all alone. But here...this was Shiro’s domain. It made his chest ache strangely. For most of his life, Keith was all alone. Sure, he was constantly surrounded by people and, yeah, maybe he didn’t get along with _everyone,_ but it’d been a long time since he’d been on his own. At least...at the home the nuns fed him, prayed for him (even if he didn’t necessarily believe that would do anything), and kept a roof over his head. Maybe they didn’t _really_ care, but he was off the streets, and that was probably all he could ever ask for. Then Shiro found him, though Keith still didn’t know _why_ he took him in. Everything he was now, he owed to Shiro. But now he was gone.

He hugged his arms close to himself and took another step deeper. The last time he felt this alone was when his dad disappeared.

He didn’t like thinking about his dad, or the foster home, or how he _might_ have been happy once. He tried his best. Like many things, Keith took all his bad feelings — sadness, loneliness, grief — and shoved it deep down. His plan was to keep them there in his chest, until the day he died. It was plain and simple — but what was not was the fact that those feelings he so carefully hid away were beginning to bubble up to the surface frighteningly fast.

He fiercely shook his head and glared at the little fish that began to curiously swim around his ankles. By now, he was about knee-deep in the water, though he didn’t seem to notice. The fish had probably never seen something like him in their whole lives. They didn’t know any better. Keith wondered if these fish were as plagued by emotion as he was. Probably not. Maybe his life would be better if he was born a fish, or a dolphin, or — something else. Something free, unbound by the confines of the world in which they lived.

But perhaps not everything was all good in the ocean. No — he _knew_ they weren’t. Maybe he was going crazy, but something in the ocean breeze told him, _Stay away. Something dangerous lurks within, beyond the mermaid paradise._

Keith frowned, taking a sudden step back. The fish around his ankles scurried away. The mermaid paradise? No, no, that was silly. That sounded like something straight out of _The Little Mermaid._

_Do not underestimate the depths of the ocean._

It felt like a warning. It had to be. He felt a twinge of anxiety begin to bloom out from the bottom of his spine, hairs on the back of his neck bristled. He suddenly got the gut-wrenching feeling that he was not alone. It felt eerily quiet, only the gentle sound of the ocean droning in his ears. He did not hear any seagull calling, any flutter of wings — only the sound of the sea, which seemed to be fading away with every passing moment.

Keith eyed his surroundings warily. He slowly reached for his belt, towards the curved dagger Shiro gave him for his birthday the year before. _For protection,_ he’d said. A slight ringing began in his ears, and he heard something like a splash to his left. His head whipped around, though he saw nothing.

His eyes narrowed. “Lance?” He called, trying to keep his voice steady. “Is that you?”

There was no answer. Of course there wasn’t. Keith was probably just being...paranoid.

Maybe Lance was pranking him.

"Not funny, man. You really need to step up your game here."

It wouldn’t be unlike him.

But why did he feel so _uneasy?_

"...Lance?" he tried. His throat was suddenly dry. Wetting his lips, he said, "I need to talk to you, Lance." He took another step into the sea, deliberate this time. He heard no response. 

 _Turn_ _around,_ something told him.

"Please?" he tried, gritting his teeth. "It's...it's important."

Still nothing.

 _Turn around._ The feeling was more insistent. It was not a request.

So he did. He chanced a glance back towards the cave — except it wasn’t... _quite_ a cave anymore. His brow furrowed, hand leaving the dagger where it was. Where the entrance to the cave had been was a platform of rocks, all smooth stone with not a speck of sand in sight. The sunlight seemed to hit this spot _just so,_ that whomever was perched on top of the mound would be hit with a sort of angelic glow. It seemed like the only sunny spot in the area.

At first, Keith thought he might have been going crazy.

Then he saw who was _actually_ up there, and he realized: _Huh. Maybe I_ am _crazy._

Because sitting atop the slick, dark rock was someone he’d never thought he’d see again.

“Hey, Keith,” the man said with a gentle smile. “Long time, no see.”

Keith’s breath caught in his throat. He couldn’t believe it.

_“Shiro.”_

 

***

 

Lance could feel a headache coming on.

He had it coming, he supposed. He didn’t really sleep at all last night. Between sneaking around his family, trying to get to the beachhouse, watching the stars with Keith, worrying about Keith, going to Keith again to make sure he was okay, getting _linked—_

He shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that right now.

“I need to stop seeing him,” Lance told his sister.

She huffed in agreement. “You think?” A beat passed. Lance worried his bottom lip between his teeth.

“Look—”

“Lance—”

The two looked at each other for a moment, then smiled. They’d spoken at the same time.

“You go first,” she said.

“Oh no, by all means,” he retorted.

Veronica smiled at him fondly. “You’re a shit, you know that?”

“The one and only,” he said, though his heart wasn’t in it.

“Yeah,” she said with a huff of laughter. She pursed her lips. “You may be a shit, but...I can’t blame you for what happened.”

“What, can’t blame me for breaking the rules? I’m pretty sure that’s my fault, Ronnie.”

“Well, yeah, I know _that’s_ your fault, but I’m not talking about that.”

“Then...what _are_ you talking about?”

“I know you like this boy.”

“I — _what_ ?!” he squawked indignantly, trying to quell the rush of feelings that single sentence rose from him. “No, no, no, no, no, I most definitely _do not_ like that, that asshole!”

Veronica raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“I’m serious! What’s there to like about him? He’s constantly moody and he _glares_ at everything all the time and he never even laughs at my jokes, I mean — who _is_ this guy?! I’m crazy funny!”

She sighed heavily. “Well,” she began, slowly, “maybe he doesn’t express himself the way you do, Lance.”

Lance’s brow furrowed, cheeks slightly pink. “What do you mean?”

Veronica seemed to consider her next words, idly tucking a lock of short, floating hair behind her ear. “Don’t tell mama I said this, but maybe...there’s more to him than a silly mullet and an angry scowl.”

“Oh no. No, no — Ronnie, you can’t be telling me what I think you’re saying.”

Her lips curled into a smirk. “And what would that be?”

“I am _not_ going to see him again. You heard how crazy I’ve been these past few days, ‘Ronica!” He crossed his arms resolutely, turning away to look at something — _anything_ else.

“Just hear me out, _Lancito,”_ she sighed, resting her fingertips on the side of her face. “This is obviously causing you a lot of stress. You look like crap, first of all,” she began, ignoring his indignant complaints, “and second of all, the sooner you figure this out, the sooner you can put it all behind you and pretend you never saw this human in the first place.”

Lance’s stomach curled in displeasure at that. Pretend he never saw Keith? That was impossible! That _land-dweller_ changed his life in so many irreversible ways that Lance couldn’t even _begin_ to fathom such changes, just that they _were._ The muscle in his jaw jumped as he considered this.

It was a little silly to think his life was turned upside down because of some _human_ he met. Sure, Lance was _intrigued_ by him — but anyone would be! How often does one see a strange pale boy with a silly haircut kick up sand for no reason, punch some weird training equipment, _and_ seem like the saddest person in the world all at once? Lance was _curious!_ He...he wanted to know why the boy was so angry, and yet so sad at the same time. Keith was like a book written in an indescipherable code. What had caused him so much pain? Why was he suffering? Why was he _here?_ What sick twist of fate brought them together in the way they had been?

And, he supposed...he still didn’t have an answer for that.

“Okay,” he relented. “I’m listening.”

 

***

 

He could almost feel his heartbeat thrumming in his ears. Was this real life? Was…was Shiro _really here?_

He _looked_ real. It felt like Keith could reach out and touch him, bring him into a tight hug, wonder if everything was finally alright. It was Shiro. It _had_ to be. It didn’t quite make sense, but Keith could recognize those kind eyes and black mop of hair _anywhere._

Something in the back of his mind was whispering uncertainties to him, yet one more look at Shiro had those worries quickly melting from his mind, replaced by feelings of reassurance.

“Shiro,” he choked out, “where have you been?”

“ _Shh,”_ said the man atop the rocks. “Don’t worry about that. You don’t need to cry for me anymore.”

Keith had hardly noticed that his eyes began stinging with tears until they were already streaming down his face. He hurriedly wiped them away with the back of his hand.

“I-I wasn’t —!”

“Hush, Keith. You don’t need to lie to me.” He opened his arms, never moving from where he was. “Come.”

Keith took a slow step forward, then another, and another. His eyes never left Shiro’s — all he was concerned about was finally, _finally_ seeing the man he considered a brother once more. His only family. It was almost like a dream come true — he didn’t know what to do with himself. It was almost as though his limbs were acting of their own accord, though Keith did not mind one bit. Something nagged at him at the back of his thoughts, telling him to slow down and think about this logically. _Logically? Who cares about that! I thought Shiro was_ dead. _There’s nothing that can stop me from bringing him home._

For a moment, Shiro’s gaze focused on something behind Keith, something in the water. Keith slowly turned to look.

“Keith.”

He turned back around. Shiro.

_Shiro’s here._

“Yeah, that’s right. Shiro’s here.” His arms still hung open. “My arms are getting sore here, buddy. Come give me a hug and we can go get some ice cream. How’s that sound?” Shiro’s voice was happy, gentle. He smiled so genuinely at Keith that he couldn’t help but quicken his pace.

“What are you feeling? Rocky road?”

Keith heaved himself up onto the first rock.

“Oh, how about cookies n cream?” Shiro continued.

Keith looked up at him with a boyish grin. “Don’t be silly, Shiro. You don’t remember my favorite ice cream flavor?”

That nagging feeling was there again.

“Of course I do! I’m just teasing.”

Keith climbed further up. “Why’d you decide to climb all the way up here?”

Shiro waved his question away. His grin widened. “Don’t worry about it. What about neapolitan?”

He furrowed his brow with effort as he tried to climb the remaining few rocks that stood between him and his brother — the person he was here for. “Still teasing, huh?” he said with a forced chuckle. He paused mid-climb, scrutinizing the rock in front of him. It felt like someone was calling him. Almost like it was someone in another room trying to get him to come over. The nagging in his mind got louder and louder with each passing moment. It was a little hard to focus; everything seemed a little dreamlike.

Something told him to run. He couldn't will his limbs to move away.

“Everything okay?”

_Keith!_

“Yeah, uh...I must be a little out of shape,” he replied, trying to shake the sudden uneasiness he felt.

_Keith, get down from there!_

“Here, I’ll help you the rest of the way.”

_...dangerous! Don’t touch it!_

“Thanks,” Keith began, glancing up at Shiro. He hesitated. Something seemed a little...off. Like his haircut wasn’t quite right, or the shape of his eyes changed. Just barely. He looked at the hand Shiro was offering him.

_No!_

Keith frowned, staring at Shiro’s hand. Something was wrong here.

_Don’t...behind you, Keith!_

Logically speaking, this  _should_ be Shiro. His hands were strong, calloused, and warm. They were gentle.

“Keith, I’ll disappear if you leave me again,” he warned, tone suddenly stern.

This hand looked cold. Clammy.

“What are you talking about, Shiro? I didn’t leave you,” he mumbled, trying to focus on that _voice._

_Oh, for the love of—_

“You left home. You left Adam.”

Something landed at the base of the rocks.

“You...you know that you disappeared, right?” Keith asked, his voice full of hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut, willing his eyes to shed no more tears. “I came to rescue you.”

_Next one’s...your stupid face! Keith!_

“I wouldn’t need saving if you just grabbed my hand already.”

His favorite ice cream flavor was strawberry.

“Don’t you _dare_ touch him, you _sick bastard!”_

Keith’s eyes flew open. There was a third person here, his voice clear as day.

“Shiro, did you…” he trailed off as he finally looked up.

In front of him, sitting atop the pile of rocks, Shiro was gone. Instead, he was replaced with a being with glowing yellow eyes, angled, near-reptilian like features, and a dusting of strange purple skin. The hand in front of him was the same shade of purple, though the fingers ended in sharp, frightening-looking claws that caused Keith to scramble backwards with a shout, effectively launching himself off the pile of rocks to land roughly on his feet. He fell to his knees, looking up at the creature with horror as it stood up, revealing limbs that weren’t quite legs, weren’t quite fins, but a horrifying mixture of the two.

_Run. Run now._

Keith couldn't agree more.

“ _Yes!_ Keith, let’s get out of here, bud!”

Keith whipped around. “Lance?!”

In the water, some feet away from him, Lance held a crab in his hand, almost like he was poised to chuck it at any given moment. Keith narrowed his eyes.

“What’s going on, Lance?” he demanded.

“Uhh — no time to explain! We gotta get out of here!”

"But — how did you—?!"

"You called for me, didn't you?" he said with a slight smile. 

That gave Keith pause. He did. He didn't expect Lance to hear him. He clenched his jaw, a knot forming between his brows as he glared at nothing in particular. He begrudgingly trudged over to where Lance was in the water, until he was about waist high. He felt a gut-wrenching sensation, a horrible pang in his chest as he chanced a glance back at the... _thing_ that took on the appearance of Shiro. It glared back at him, though it seemed that the creature's gaze was instead fixed upon Lance, boring holes into him. There was a look of utter disgust and distaste on its face. It said something in a weird language. Keith recognized it as a curse, though he had no idea  _how._  Though he got the feeling the creature would not  _— could_ not follow them. It was strange.

_Huh. Shiro was never here._

Yet...being close to Lance gave him a sense of comfort. A feeling that everything would be alright. He pressed his lips into a thin line. He didn't know what to think.

He was bewildered. And tired.

So, so tired.

"Let's just," Keith gestured vaguely, "get out of here. I'm sick of this place."

 


	10. remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmm so i haven't posted in exactly three months, which, tbh, my bad. i wrote some other nonsense instead of this. but i think i know what i want to do for the rest of this fic, so worry not!
> 
> anyways. we continue.

“What were you  _ doing _ all the way out there?!”

Keith looked up at Lance with a stare that could cut through steel. They were both seated atop that rock formation where Keith first spotted Lance, facing the sea. Keith was sitting as far away as possible, drenched from head to toe in seawater. His phone was probably broken in his sopping pocket by now, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Not too much, anyways. He was near-seething at this point.

“What was  _ I _ doing?” he snapped back. “Is that really the question you should be asking right now?”

Just for an instant, Lance flinched backwards. His brows raised slightly in surprise, but the next instant they were knitted back together and his mouth was fixed in a frown. “Oh, come on! Are you serious?!” he shouted incredulously, throwing his hands in the air. “What was I supposed to think? I heard you calling for me, but I couldn’t tell  _ where  _ you were! You’re lucky you’re still alive.”

Keith clenched his jaw so tightly that he swore he could almost  _ feel _ the shape of his molars against each other. “Stop playing the hero all the time.”

Lance let out an indignant noise, but Keith cut him off short.

“It’s always, ‘oh, I thought you died!’ and ‘Keith, you’re lucky to be alive’ — what’s your  _ problem? _ Am I some maiden in distress? Do you need to save me from the big dragon that guards my ivory tower? Am I  _ that fragile _ that you think you need to come to my rescue all the time?!” His nostrils flared. He could feel his temper rising. What was it that Shiro always told him? Close your eyes, count to ten,  _ breathe. _ But Keith couldn’t. He could hardly keep his hands from shaking.

“What is  _ with _ your obsession with me?” he snapped. “Do you really hate me that much? Because I wanted to get away from everything? Because I apparently  _ ‘stole’ _ your spot?” He made air quotes with his fingers. He regarded Lance for a moment, looking for anything that would make him want to stop shouting, like a twinge of some sadness or fear. All he found was contempt, and maybe something else — but it just made him want to punch Lance in the face.

Keith abruptly turned away, glaring out towards the horizon. A muscle in his jaw jumped and he shook his head. He closed his eyes, tried to breathe. Tried to pretend Lance didn’t exist. Keith wished he could go away, wish he could just cease to exist. Looking out at the sea was beginning to get painful. With every moment Keith was here on this beach, he was reminded more and more of Shiro. The memory of Shiro telling Keith that he had a surprise for him, like he could hardly contain his excitement. Shiro presenting the beach house to Keith like it was the best thing he’d ever seen. Shiro leaning against the balcony railing and looking out to sea with a wistful look that Keith couldn’t even begin to understand.  _ Just somewhere to be when you don’t want to be anywhere. _

“I don’t get any of this,” he began, voice lowered. “I thought I’d get answers by coming here, but all I have are more questions than I can count.”

Lance was silent and stiff in Keith’s peripheral. Neither of them looked at the other. Keith fell into silence too.

He should probably go home. Home to Adam, where there would be at least  _ some _ semblance of normalcy. Shiro was gone. Maybe he just needed to accept that.  _ Gone. _ Never coming back.

He tried not to feel guilty. He really,  _ really _ tried. How could he face Adam now? When he left, he made a silent vow to not come back unless it was with answers. With Shiro.

It  _ seemed  _ like a good idea. But now he just felt silly.

And now he just got into a fight with the one person who  _ might _ just care.

_ Stupid. What did you expect was going to happen? _

He should apologize. It would be the right thing to do. But he also wanted to run away. He couldn’t help that. That’s all he ever did — run. And maybe that’s what he should do now. He had half a mind to bolt right then and there, to leave this beach forever and pretend he never saw anything. He told himself it’d be easier that way. 

“It was a siren.”

Keith’s eyes flickered toward Lance. He said it so quietly that for a second Keith thought he’d imagined it.

“That’s what you call them, right?” Lance tilted his head up to look at Keith. “That...thing.” There was a look of disgust on his face. “With the purple skin.”

Keith didn’t know what to say.

“They’ve been trying to gain control of this corner of the sea for a long time. Since before I was born.” Lance looked like he was trying to find the words. Keith let him. “They’re awful. You probably already know about them. Being human and all. They do really bad things.”

“You mean besides eating people?”

Lance cracked a smile. Keith couldn’t help the curl of his own lips. The tension in the air was slowly melting away.

“Besides eating people,” he echoed in confirmation. His face became serious, gaze unfocused on the rocks. “I heard that they’ve been trying to take the entire ocean for themselves for millennia now. Sirens — they call themselves Galra — are ruthless killers. They’ve tried to take my own city a few times. Luckily, King Alfor and the princess —”

“Wait a minute,” Keith cut in. “King Alfor?” There was a slight smile on his face. “That’s his  _ name?” _

“Yup!” Lance says proudly, puffing out his chest. “He’s—” the merman stops short. Lance frowned at Keith, who was snickering. “ _ Hey! _ What’s so funny?!”

Keith waved him away, trying and failing to keep his face impassive. “Nothing, nothing — go on.”

Lance huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked like he wanted to say something more, but he merely continued. “As I was saying before I was so  _ rudely interrupted —”  _ he jabbed, “— King Alfor and the princess are really good at warding them off.” He paused for a moment, looking uncharacteristically thoughtful. There was a ghost of a smile on his face. “They’re pretty amazing. I don’t know how they do it. Must be some weird ancient magic they use.”

Keith’s brow furrowed. He slid down the rock he was on, moving closer to Lance.

“What magic?”

Lance jumped in his place, as if surprised that Keith was still there. “Magic?”

“Yeah,” he grunted.

“Well — I guess it’s technically alchemy. They teach some version of it to us when we’re younger. It’s not much — it’s mostly about how to be more in touch with the water, how to sense nearby life and impending danger, stuff like that.”

“You — you can  _ do magic?” _ Keith asked, leaning forward, eyes wide.  

Lance looked up at Keith. It almost gave him whiplash to see that Keith — prickly and short-tempered Keith; the Keith who, not moments ago, yelled at Lance — had all the amazement and wonder of a child seeing the night sky in all its brilliance for the first time. It made his heart flutter in a strange way. He didn’t know what to make of it.

“Well,” Lance began, trying to pretend that he wasn’t feeling anything, “sure I can!” As if to demonstrate, Lance fell silent, hands outstretched in front of him. Keith watched intently. He realized, with a start, that Lance had webbed fingers. Lance’s hands were the same color as the rest of his skin (except for the tail part, he supposed), but the webs between his fingers seemed to fade into a blue color in the middle, making a sort of ombre effect that could only be described as eerily beautiful.

Keith had the irrational impulse to grab Lance’s hand just then. Just to observe. Obviously. But he ultimately decided against it.

He turned his attention back to what Lance was doing, just in time to see a sizeable water droplet emerge from the sea. Lance brought it up to his hands and began to juggle it between them, though it never made contact with his flesh. He lifted one of his hands up, and the water droplet stretched into a long string of water. He flicked his wrist as though he were spinning a top, and the water began to spin, creating something reminiscent of a coil out of it. 

“Huh,” Keith said, slightly dumbfounded. “You can waterbend.”

“I can — what?” Lance asked, concentration breaking enough that the water fell out of the air.

“You can—” Keith cut himself off. He was almost certain Lance had never heard of  _ Avatar: the Last Airbender,  _ and he  _ definitely  _ didn’t want to spend hours explaining television to someone who lived  _ underwater.  _ Instead, he said, “Actually, nevermind. Show me more magic.”

“There’s not much to show,” he admitted, summoning another bit of water into his hands. “This isn’t really how I’m supposed to use this, but who’s watching? I think it’s prettier out of the water.” There was a gentle smile on Lance’s face as he lifted his hands up a little, sending the water up into a thin sheet in the air. He relinquished his control on it, and the two were showered with a gentle drizzle. The sight was enough to make Keith feel a little warm inside. He’d never seen Lance look so...soft before. Beyond his smile, his eyes appeared wistful, and Keith noticed (also for the first time) that Lance had freckles scattered across his cheeks and shoulders. He also noticed the way his nose flicked upwards at the tip, and how strong his jawline was, and how  _ toned _ his body was, even down to his— 

“Look,” Lance said, awed. “The colors. There’s so many of them.” Keith tore his gaze away from the merman, feeling heat rise up his neck.  _ What _ had gotten into him? He felt extremely silly, ogling Lance like that. There must be something wrong with him.

“My sister Veronica taught me how to do this.” Keith looked up once more, only to see that Lance had stopped the tiny water droplets where they were, creating a million tiny rainbows within each droplet. “If you stop the water from moving, it’s like someone splattered every color over the surface of the water. But if you do this,” Lance moved his hands again, and the water moved in an almost cylindrical motion. “The rainbow comes back, like it would if it were raining.”

Lance looked at Keith with the brightest smile he’d ever seen. The sun was beginning its descent over the horizon, giving Lance a warm, golden glow that made him look otherworldly. Inhuman. Technically, Keith supposed, he  _ wasn’t  _ human. But that didn’t stop him from being reeled in by Lance, like a fish to shore.

This was dangerous. Keith knew that the moment he discovered what Lance was.

But, he found that he didn’t care.

Because at the moment, Lance appeared to have the entirety of the sea within him; there was an ethereal quality to him that seemed to make time itself stand still for all of those near him. Keith’s gaze drew once more to the magic betwixt Lance’s fingers. The water had gathered up again into a sizeable droplet that the merman divided into two — one to rest in the air above each hand.

“Wanna know what else I can do with this?” Lance said, his voice low.

Keith looked up at him. He could feel his anticipation building; it’s not every day a person can see  _ real _ magic performed right before their very eyes. “What?”

Lance smiled again — kind and soft, which was not a look unsuited for him, Keith thought. He could also see the light catch in Lance’s eyes, making them appear brighter and more pronounced than they already were. It struck Keith how close they were then, practically leaning into each other, almost as though—

Keith was struck with ocean water. It snapped him out of the moment like a slap to the face, and he sat there for a second, muscles stiff from the way he jolted the moment the water hit his face and half of his hair. It took him a moment to realize what had happened, but with the shit-eating grin Lance was giving him, it wasn’t too difficult to find out what happened. One of Lance’s hands was empty.

He looked up at the merman with an impassive look, subtly reaching into the water with his foot. Oh, Lance could laugh all he wanted. But he never saw it coming when Keith kicked up a spray of water directly into Lance’s face.

“Heh, I guess I can do magic too, huh?” Keith said, not even bothering to fight the grin that made its way to his face. Lance sputtered and opened and closed his mouth rapidly, like a fish, trying and failing to say anything at all. “What’s the matter?” Keith taunted. “Cat got your tongue?”

“Oh, you are  _ so _ on, Mullet!” the merman replied, gathering more water with his  _ magic _ in retaliation.

It went on like this for a while, long enough for the sun to set over the horizon and the stars to come out. The two splashed water at each other to their heart’s content with hardly a truce spared between them until they both tired themselves out. Keith realized too late that starting a water-splashing war with a creature of the  _ sea _ wasn’t necessarily the brightest idea he had. Lance was essentially in his element (literally), so each splash Keith sent his way only made him stronger.

Even so, it was the most Keith had smiled since he’d been here. His cheeks hurt from smiling, even though he was the first to admit defeat. At the end of their little war, he flopped onto his back. The two lounged together in silence for a time, simply watching as the world slowly but surely moved around them. Lance was the first one to break the silence.

“So, um,” he began. “What’s a cat?”

Keith looked at him incredulously. “Oh my god,” he said. “You’ve never seen a cat?”

“Am I supposed to?”

“Well. It’s recommended.”

“By who?”

“By me.”

Lance laughed. “Yeah, okay, Mr. Mullet. Whatever you say.”

Keith merely rolled his eyes. They fell back into silence. He looked up at the stars and recognized a few of the constellations that Lance pointed out the night before. Sagittarius. Andromeda (constellation  _ and _ galaxy). Cassiopeia. Leo. Scorpio. He could recognize Mars too, though he couldn’t quite remember where Saturn was. He saw the classics that everyone knew about too. Orion and Orion’s belt, the big and little dipper. He felt that soft feeling return tenfold. There was something about remembering constellations and planets Lance pointed out that made Keith’s stomach do flips. Good flips. Maybe?

A quick glance up to Lance told Keith that he was watching the stars too. Then his stomach did another flip. A bad one.

“I’m sorry,” Keith said suddenly, looking back towards the stars.

Lance turned to him. “What for?”

He hesitated. “I’m sorry about earlier.” He huffed out a sigh and ran a hand through the front of his bangs. “For yelling at you.”

“Oh.” Lance was silent for a moment — a moment that seemed to drag on for a century with the way dread was beginning to well up in Keith’s chest. “That’s okay. It happens,” Lance said with a half-shrug. Keith propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at the merman.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! I mean, you probably had a reason. And...you made a good point.” Lance sighed heavily, and for the first time, Keith saw  _ gills  _ on the side of Lance’s torso, right about where the lungs would be. It wasn’t as disconcerting as it probably should have been. Lance continued, “I should be sorry, too.”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous, Lance.”

“No, I mean it! I’m sorry for being so hover-y, I guess.” He began to pick at a jagged piece of stone that looked as though it could fall off at any second. “I’ve never really been around humans, so I just assumed that, y’know, we’d be different...and stuff.”

Keith looked at Lance for a moment, letting the words set in. He knew Lance was implying that he thought humans were weaker than merpeople, and Keith could see where he was coming from. Still, it didn’t stop the chuckle that bubbled out from his chest. “That’s okay,” he parroted. “It happens.”

The two smiled at each other, just for a second. Then they suddenly became very interested at the rock they were on, heat creeping up Keith’s neck. A comfortable silence fell over them once more.

Keith had no idea what time it is. Well, he could probably guess by the location of the moon, but even that’s just a rough estimate. It could be way off. Still, it wasn’t like they could just sit out here all night. Keith wanted to just sleep the day’s events away. He was sure Lance should be back home too, lest he get in trouble. He was just about to suggest they part ways when Lance spoke up.

“What did you see?” he said, not looking at Keith. “When you were tricked by that Galran, I mean.”

Keith looked to him and felt hesitation grip his words before they even had a chance to form. He saw Shiro. There was no denying that. It still made him shudder to think they would use Shiro’s face for their own nefarious purposes. It gave him the creeps. How did they do that, anyways?

“Er — if it’s too personal, I understand,” Lance quickly added. “You don’t have to—”

“Lance,” Keith said, cutting him off before he could start rambling. “It was my brother.”

“Oh. I didn’t think you had a brother.”

“Well,” he sighed, sitting up fully, “he’s not  _ technically _ my brother. He just feels like a brother.”

Lance nodded sagely. “And...where is he right now? I thought you were the only one at the beach house.”

“I am.” Keith bit the inside of his cheek. It was still too soon. It hurt to even think about where Shiro could be, let alone  _ talk _ about it. His chest felt tight at the mere thought of it. But something was telling him that it would be best to tell Lance. “I, uh. I don’t know where he is.”

Lance turned to face him. There was a look of confusion across his features. “You don’t?”

“He’s…” Keith cleared his throat, drawing his knees up to his chin. “He disappeared. Two weeks ago.”

“I’m — I’m sorry.”

Keith waved him off. “The only reason I’m here is because he’s the one who showed me that old beach house.”

Lance stiffened. His mouth felt as dry as sand. “And — you think his disappearance has to do with this part of the land?”

“I  _ know _ it does. There  _ has _ to be some link between this beach and him disappearing. The last time I saw him, he got into a fight with his fiancé and said he was going sailing to cool off.” Keith tried to keep the emotion away from his voice, shoving it back down his chest. “But he never came back. So that’s why I’m here. Two weeks later.”

“Do you know how he found out about the beach house?” Lance asked, hesitant.

“Not a clue. He said something about the previous owner, but I doubt they knew each other.”

“And he went sailing around here, you said?”

Keith furrowed his brow. “Yeah..?”

“Keith,” Lance said, uncharacteristically serious. He turned to face Keith. “I think I can help you find him.”


End file.
